The smell of a warm fire. Hot cocoa burning the roof of your mouth. The crunch of snow beneath your boots. These all are pretty exciting senses you get to experience this time of year, but they aren’t my favorites.

The most sensational thing about this time of year? It has more to do with the changes that happen with the men in the area. No matter what type of guy he may be the rest of the year, a real Maine man will take on many of the following qualities during the winter months and I for one, along with many other ladies, appreciate it.

It’s the extra layers of flannel covered by a nice thick Carhartt jacket that they start to bundle up in. (Oooh yeah, cover up for me.) It’s the scratchy fuzz on their cheeks that are mandatory to keep their faces warm from the brutal weather as they dig their cars out of the snow. (No girl can resist a little beard rash on her face after a make-out sesh.) It’s the frost bitten redness their cheeks get after they’ve been sitting outside ice fishing all day. (Baby, you look like Santa Claus.) It’s the pale-ness they get from not seeing the sun for a good 2 months at least. (Translucent is what gets me going.)

Move over sun-tanned beach boys. Give me a man in the winter time over that any day. Nothing says Man like Maine.

(Do you guys remember this?)