First of all I want to say that vanilla Skyrim is an outstanding game that deserves all the praise that it gets. I love vanilla Skyrim.
With that being said, I started using mods a month ago and HOLY SMOKES!!!!! What a difference! I feel like I'm playing TES VI, the game is so much better. I have enhancements on the towns and cities, I have a mod making the water look more real, I have the popular climate change that everyone talks about, I have a follower mod that lets me have several followers, and they find stuff to do by them selves in town and they make camp while outside.
I also have a mod named...I think it is Falskaar, and the new Conan quest mod. And also a merchant mod giving them more money. Oh, and my character wears a lantern.
It's a good time to be a TES player.