When *will* winter come?

Warning: Spoilers up to the end of season 3

With a show like Game of Thrones, avoiding spoilers has been incredibly difficult. I think I had done quite well, considering. All I knew was that Joffrey is the kid everyone hates, Peter Dinklage is awesome and plays someone awesome, handsome men and beautiful women aplenty (normal for TV shows I guess), and it's somewhat gory and plenty of nudity. Oh, there's also dragons. And lots of character deaths.

About a week ago, I decided to start watching the show, seeing as there were a couple episodes left to air of season 4. I thought ~15 days would be enough to watch the available episodes, and I would be able to watch the season 4 finale "live" (or as soon as it's available to me). It only took me 2 days to finish the first season. By the time the penultimate season 4 episode aired, I was already halfway through season 3. I honestly thought I would finish much earlier than planned, and I would have to wait before the season 4 finale.

From the beginning, I've told myself to not get attached to any of the characters, with the show's reputation of often killing their main characters. But I couldn't help it. First episode, the Stark boys hanging out outside, and Robb... And they got those baby wolves... I couldn't help it! The Red Wedding broke me a little. I somehow knew it was going to happen, that they were gonna kill him off (no, I didn't read the books), but it was still brutal. The King in the North, his queen, their unborn child, his mother, and his direwolf. Did they have to kill Grey Wind too?! He was defeated in the war, during his uncle's wedding. I believe I would get over this one day, and that will be the day when I can continue watching the show. Earlier I said that I was going to finish watching the available episodes days before the season 4 finale. It's been days since the red wedding and I still haven't been able to watch any of season 4. I'm going to miss Robb.

I have to say, the Stark family is very unfortunate. They were together, happy as a family, for only 1.5 episodes! They were slowly but surely torn apart since then. Now a third of them are dead, and the rest are scattered around the world, without any suggestions that they will be brought together any time soon. I really wanted Robb to march north, back to Winterfell, to rescue/avenge for Bran and Rickon. Get the family back together, and then go back to fighting the war. Robb Stark had made some bad decisions leading up to his death, but I doubt my suggestion was the better option. In any case, I would love to watch a prequel to Game of Thrones, where we follow the Stark family doing their day to day business. Anything, really, showing them together and enjoying their time. They were all pretty much stressed after that first episode.

So, when will winter come? I assume it'll be when the white walkers finally attack the wall? Or will the wildlings breach it first? I don't know if I care anymore. I used to think that the Starks would need to defend Winterfell, if/when the wall falls. Now Winterfell is pretty much ruins, none of the Starks are there, and... I just don't care anymore. Hopefully I get to the point where I want to watch the next episodes. I heard the Joffrey would get killed, maybe that's motivation enough to keep watching. And then, I assume, the dragons will come and kill everyone.