Autumn sounds so much more classy than FALL.
No matter what you call it I love the season between
Summer and Winter.
I LOVE FALL !!!
It is, in my opinion, the perfect time of year.
So today by popular request I am:
1. Continuing my "Things I am Thankful For" series and
2. Rambling about Fall.
And yes I know I don't have to capitalize Fall every time I write it but in case you didn't get it the first time "I LOVE FALL".
There is nothing I don't like about Fall.
(I will spell it with a capital every time because I want to and just so you don't forget what I'm talking about)
I love that the excessively hot and humid days of summer are coming to and end for another year. Those days when as soon as you step out of the shower you are soaked in "perspiration" again. Summer days so humid that is is like trying to breath underwater.
That must be what fish feel like when we pull them out of the water and they try to breath air.
Summer is NOT my favorite season.
Fall is the season before it get so cold that my fingers turn blue. I know we live in the south and it doesn't get cold by some people's standard, but heck we ARE southerners and not used to cold weather.
OK, enough negativity, on to why I LOVE Fall.
I like cool crisp mornings with a hint of colder weather to come.
I like seeing the first frost on my lawn.
I like the smell of leaves burning.
I love the colors of the leaves; golds, yellows, oranges, browns.
I like to see people raking leaves into piles and
children jumping into those piles.
I like to drive down the tree lined streets and
have the wind blow down the leaves in little "leaf showers"
I like to see the big yellow school buses roll down our street.
I like to see moms buying school supplies and kids excited about returning to school, seeing old friends, meeting new ones and
finding out who their teacher will be.
I like to throw on my favorite sweatshirt when I go out to get the mail.
I like curling up with a good book, a cup of hot chocolate, an afghan and feeling all warm and snug in my home.
I love football season. I've never been a big sports fan, but football is not just a sport. Football is huddling in the stands on a crisp Saturday afternoon. It is cheerleaders and pom poms. It is homecoming and bowl games. It is legendary school rivalries. It is mascots and coaches. It is yelling until your throat is sore. It is tailgating and victory parties.
Fall makes me want to ... wait for it ... it makes me want to "COOK".
I am not the best cook in the world, but I make a great veggie soup.
Which is the only way I will eat vegetables.
Fall makes me want to cook big pots of soup or chili.
I want to make chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter cookies.
(Again that is the only way I will eat peanut butter)
I love the smell of cinnamon and pumpkin
(which I refuse to eat no matter what you do to it)
Fall is time for cups of hot chocolate and
oooey, gooey, yummy, s'mores.
Fall is Wayne County Fair time.
I will NOT ride any rides, but I love the fair.
The sound, the smells (most of them anyway), the lights,
the exhibits and even the crowds.
I love bumping into people you haven't seen for a while.
I love seeing the food booths that are run by church groups and
volunteer fire departments.
I like to look at the art from the local schools and the crafts and
the home canning displays.
I have to eat cotton candy, boiled peanuts,
and a hamburger or a hot dog.
But most of all I HAVE to have a funnel cake
covered with powdered sugar.
Hot fried dough covered in sweet sticky sugar.
What could finish off an evening at the fair any better.
I love Halloween not just because my favorite goblin was
born on that day. Which is, of course, my number one reason.
Halloween is just fun!
No gifts to buy, no big meal to prepare no STRESS.
Just fun decorations, silly costumes and CANDY.
Preferably of the chocolate variety.
Halloween is little spooks standing on the front porch holding out their bags and being to afraid to say "Trick or Treat". It is having at least one "ring and dash" from that teenager who is too old to go trick or treating, but just wants to join the fun.
I have to watch "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown",
but positively NO scary movies or hurtful tricks.
Just FUN.
Fall is for carving pumpkins and toasting the pumpkin seeds. Why I toast the seeds I don't know. It is another one of those things I make but don't like. But is seems like the right thing to do after you rip the guts out of a perfectly good pumpkin. Kind of paying respect to "The Great Pumpkin"
Then comes Thanksgiving which is a bit more stress,
but a good kind of stress.
I Love planning and cooking our "Family Feast".
I cook too much and can you believe it, I eat too much.
We watch the Macy's parade and some football.
Then it is time to get the sale papers and plan our attack strategy for an early morning of black Friday bargain shopping.
Fall just never seems to last long enough for me.
It feels like the shortest season of the year.
It is gone much too soon and then we are into the hustle and bustle that the Christmas season has become.
I want the world to slow down and enjoy Fall for the perfect season that it is. The season to just enjoy the feeling that is kind of like that peaceful, cozy feeling you get just before you fall asleep at night.
Maybe that is what Fall is to me; that half asleep, half awake feeling after one busy day and before another.
