Another kind of winter-gray

We were used to cold, snowy winters, with frosty and often sunny days (we call it "soare cu dinti"- sun that has teeth, biting), sparkling snow, icicles, icy roads, sharp wind-sometimes. The public transportation often got slow and if the snow was higher than half a meter or so, schools would close. Then, kids would stay outside all day playing in the snow, there was no flu danger and it was heaven for them.
I hate cold, but incredibly I regret those winters. Now, all we have is gray. It's wet and rather warm: 7 to 10, foggy and dull. We keep the lights on all day long, so the hours have almost no meaning. At 4pm it's already night. Kids are almost all sneezing and coughing, many have the flu, so no outdoors playing. An early vacation starts next week, I hope they will be able to enjoy it. We will only to some extent, because it will cost us. And then, we'll have to redo classes on our spare time.
I'm dreading the New Year- the worst moment in the year for me,when we are supposed to celebrate that we're only ephemeral. But, until then, let's cross the fingers for a snowy Christmas.