It's a gloomy raindrops against the windows Saturday morning. The kind of day that makes you want to hibernate inside and wait for spring.

Outside you can tell it's cold, watching as the trees twist around themselves in this early winter wind. Leaves scatter across the yard, away from the piles where they were raked, as if to say we're gone, we're free, we got away, only to be scooped up by the wind and carried off to destinations unknown.

Fall is officially over, having barely begun, giving way to the hand of winter moving over the land. If I were handy in the kitchen, I might be tempted to bake some apple pies. The kind of smell that can make any house feel like home, a welcome scent that greets you at the front door and bids you stay.

Or maybe it's the kind of day for warm from the oven, melt in your mouth chocolate chip cookies. Measuring the ingredients into the mixing bowl, flour clinging to the side of your cheeks, as small hands struggle to stir the dough to shape.

This is a good way to spend a day, I think, laughing with the little ones in the kitchen, making winter treats to warm the soul, sharing mugs of hot chocolate, like secrets not meant to be told.

Precious moments made more often in this time of year, when the weather pushes you gently inside, into the bosom of your home and reminds you what being a family is all about.