To Fall, With Love

Ahhhh… Fall, why have you kept me waiting so long?

I love everything about you—the cool, crisp air you blow through my hair, how you make me smile just looking at your vivid beauty—the blazing oranges… bold, fiery reds… sunbursts of yellow and gold… You’re absolutely breathtaking. I want to embrace everything about you. It’s amazing what energy you give me as I breathe in the intoxicating smells of crumbling leaves, fireplaces ablaze, apples ripe and juicy, your comforting casseroles, chili, apple crisp and cinnamon stirred cider. Your natural sounds of crunching leaves and geese honking overhead provide the perfectly calming background melodies to my afternoon walks. The days of endless entertainment you bestow upon us...the festivals, visits to apple orchards and pumpkin patches, trick-or-treating, wine tasting, hay rides and bonfires… I’m forever thankful for your presence and wish you’d stay awhile longer. I don’t mean to disrespect, but tell Old Man Winter to stick it. It’s you I want, Fall, for just a month or two longer.

There are a lot of reason people like living in Wisconsin – the Badgers, the Packers, the cheese, the brats, the beer, family, good farmland, good schools, good paper, hard workers and friendly faces. For me, I suppose it’s a combination of all of those, but it’s the change of seasons, (and family of course) that keep me grounded here. Truth be told, as much as I bash winter, I’d miss it if I didn’t have it. But, seriously, why must you stick around so long? If you haven’t gathered from my ode to autumn, it’s the season I love most of all. Always have. It’s a time of year I look forward to with giddy anticipation after a hot, humid summer. And it’s a time I forget how much I’ve missed when that first cool breeze kisses my nose.

For my family, the month of October kicks off all kinds of fall-time fun. Ella has constantly been asking when she can jump into a pile of leaves. Our trees are still fully loaded so we have a few more weeks to go. But that little girl was so desperate for a frolic the other day that she took out her little rake and scrounged up every fallen leaf she could find and made one very pathetic heap. She didn’t care. She jumped right in with a huge smile on her face and threw those 20 or so leaves up in the air with the pure joy that autumn brings.

Jaisa is still taking it all in. We went for a walk on the Fox River Trail yesterday and I kept putting freshly fallen leaves in the tray on her stroller. She got all excited and started patriotically waving them about like little flags. It’s quite possible that both my girls got it bad for fall just like their mom.

In the weeks ahead, the family and I will be discussing (and hopefully deciding on) Halloween costumes, picking out pumpkins, visiting our absolute favorite apple orchard (it’s not just apples, folks), creating mountains of Halloween crafts, gorging ourselves on caramel apples and candy, and of course later giving thanks for every last bit of it.

Fall, I’m so crushing on you right now.

Got a favorite season? What are some of your favorite traditions?