For those of us in the UAE, winter means that we all participate in the charade that it is cold now. We do this by wearing sweaters and occasionally scarves and sometimes even a coat (!), especially in the mornings. This morning, Magdalena rode her bike to school wearing short sleeves and shorts. Somehow, it felt wrong to have her do that in December, so I put a jacket on her for show. Never mind that it was probably about 80 degrees outside, or close to it.
Still, I eat up this season of reduced temperatures. I've paid careful attention to all four seasons and I don't think it's as bad as some people would have had us believe before we moved here. We heard all kinds of horror stories, such as the legend that there are only two seasons here: summer, and really really hot summer.
The truth is that it's very nice weather here (in my opinion) for a good seven months. From about 15 October to 15 May, the weather does not adversely affect the business of your daily life (read: it's not so hot that you physically cannot walk around outside). And really, that's about as much as you can ask of a place. Consider: the non-brutal-wintery season of Ithaca lasted a similar length.
So I'm happy to have my seven months of gorgeous weather, even if it doesn't come with all the visual cues (or even the very low temperatures) of deep winter. And now if you see me wearing a sweater when it's 80 degrees outside, you'll know why.