Anything involving skis on my feet is very high priority! As a father of two (4 and 7 year old) the trips are short and fun. The only problem is that living close to the Atlantic coast of Norway the winters can be pretty unstable, but we usually have VERY good skiing conditions only 15 minutes away. Amazing what a few hundred meters of altitude can do to the snow conditions.

More often than not I can just put on the kids skiing boots and watch as they run for the nearest hill to slide or ski down.

I really dig doing winter stuff with my kids - but I also long for more "grown up" skiing stuff, both downhill (telemark) and nordic. With some friends I have one long weekend reserved for such a trip. That trip is SACRED and has priority above anything else (although we'll reschedule if someone has a child birth or something). Most years we've done winter camping at Finse, which is pretty hard core arctic. I've been camping there in Beaufort force 8, which was pretty awesome. We'll probably go there this year, but that is only because we (or I, specifically) couldn't afford to do offpiste telemark in Chamonix this year. That is the plan for 2013, though...

Biking in winter is fun, too. With changing weather you need good tires Nokian extreme (bike tire with spikes). On hard ice it is much safer to bike with these tires than to walk. Great fun!

Whatever I do I feel pretty great mastering the conditions and environment. The challenges in winter are many, including hungry and frozen children, though driving conditions and frozen door locks. Best time of the year is when there's white stuff on the ground!