Imagine how much fun the carnival season would be if it took place in a warm month as opposed to the dead of winter. Those scantily clad marchers in the parades -- doesn’t your heart go out to them? Then again, the point of it all is to get one’s reveling in before the start of the austere times of Lent. Which must have made perfect sense back in the day when the larder was growing empty by this time of year anyway. You have to admire the logic of the ancient rites and how they were segued into the customs and traditions we celebrate to this day.

Confession time -- I am not a big fan of winter. If there’s anything I can do to break up its relentless monotony, I will. A Sunday afternoon at a spa makes for a good temporary escape, but how I long for the rays of sun on my back and the lightness of walking around outside in just shorts and T-shirt.

Last year over the long Martin Luther King Jr.’s holiday weekend, my husband and I booked a three-day, last-minute package deal to the Canary Island of Tenerife. We stayed in a rather dumpy efficiency apartment in the town of Puerto de la Cruz. The trip, booked through Thomas Cook, cost 278 euros per person, no meals included.

A reader recently suggested that with all the traveling I do, I must be living with the constant threat of credit-card debt. I can easily see how a reader -- particularly one living back in the USA -- could get the impression that I lead some kind of a jet-set lifestyle. I suppose I do, but it is of the budget-airline variety.

What’s the secret to being able to afford a holiday nearly every month of the year? I put it down to a fortuitous combination of personal circumstances, modest everyday lifestyle and judicious spending while on holiday. Here are some of my secrets, revealed.

A couple of mornings ago, I tossed out my dog-eared, coffee-stained, 2009 desk calendar and pulled out an unblemished 2010 planner. How I long to fill its pages with notations of flight times and confirmed hotel bookings! Before I do, however, I am going to take stock in what travel dreams I managed to bring to fruition in 2009, and what events I’ve yet to conquer.

With all the recent snow and cold causing mass delays and cancellations to rail and air connections, staying put for the remainder of the year doesn’t seem such a bad idea after all. Numerous fantastic trips spiced up my travel calendar in 2009. The following places made up some of my favorite destinations over the past year. What were yours?

Here’s a tip for those in search of quaint Christmas markets in the smaller German villages -- don’t expect to find a lot of them open on weekdays. Last Friday, I purchased the German Rail’s Rheinland-Pfalz and Saarland ticket and decided to explore the markets of as many smaller towns as possible. While I did visit some lovely places, including Idar-Oberstein, Bad Sobernheim, Bad Münster am Stein, Bad Kreuznach and Bingen, only one on these places, Bad Kreuznach, had a Christmas market, but even there, there wasn’t much to see.

Looking for a gift for a friend or relative who loves to travel in Germany? Mark your calendar and set your alarm for an early visit to your local Lidl supermarket as soon as it opens Monday, Dec. 7. This unlikely venue will be selling Deutsche Bahn train passes for two persons making a single journey together for a very reasonable 66 euros.

The DB Lidl-Ticket will allow you to travel within Germany or between Germany and Austria on days of your choosing, Fridays excepted, between Jan. 4 and March 31, 2010.

If you’re based in Germany, chances are good your plans leading up to Christmas will include visiting a Christmas market or two. If you’re trying to visit a few new markets this year, a good strategy might be to visit one that is big and famous, such as those in Frankfurt or Nuremberg, along with a couple of those in a smaller locale. Choose a town with a charming setting, such as one with an historical old city, or perhaps a castle as its backdrop, to maximize the experience. Don’t know where to begin?