Ready for the weekend…and FALL

Is it just me? Am I the only one ready for the weekend? Ready for fall?

I was ready for the weekend before the week started. Maybe it’s because it’s fall, my favorite season where the air is crisp and everywhere I drive I see the bright orange, reds, and yellow leaves reminding of a warm burning fire. It is the time of year where I dress in snuggly warm sweaters, blue jeans, (okay, jeans are my preferred attire any time of year for any event) and cozy socks topped off by leather boots. What can I say? I am a country girl at heart. (Shh. Don’t tell anyone. It will be our little secret.)

I like fall because the crisp, cool air breathes life into everything. The breeze through opened windows smells clean and the rustling leaves are an invitation to go outside and visit them and the smiling mums planted in the garden and along my rock wall. A crackling fire not only warms my fingers and toes, but roasting fluffly white marshmallows on a stick until golden brown then squishing them between two graham crackers and chocolate warms me inside and turns me all ooey and gooey. Added bonus is that the melted chocolate makes my lips sweet and very kissable.

For some people fall is an ending, the ending of summer, the death of all those pretty annuals planted in the garden and yards. For me, fall is a beginning. It is a time where I de-clutter and clean out closets, the house, my life and bring in the new. The poor garbage collection people probably roll their eyes as they turn the corner with their behemoth of a truck and bone-crushing compactor for my street with a dread of never knowing what they will find parked at the end of my driveway each week. To that I say, “I had to carry it to the end of the drive. All you have to do is dump it in your monster machine.”

Fall is watching football and hockey games on television while curled up on a sofa or in a chair eating a bowl of my famous nose-clearing 3-meat chili (beef cubes, ground beef, and bacon) and drinking a cold beer, preferably Magic Hat #9. This is the season when I enjoy baking cookies and pies not just for the tasty treat factor, but also for the homey feel that a fresh baked batch of chocolate chip cookies brings to the house. Along with the baked goodies, I make homemade hot cocoa and on a really chilly day I heat some up, add in a little Kailua or Bailey’s and top it off with a heaping swirl of whipped cream. You know the kind that leaves a creamy moustache in its wake after the first sip.

My favorite holiday, Halloween, is in the fall. Decorating the porch and deck with pumpkins, some carved, some not, with scarecrows and dried ears of corn that the squirrels eat is fun. Handing out candy to the costumed, screaming, and hurried trick-or-treaters while I watch a scary movie, the only night a year I do this, is a blast for me. I always over buy the treats. Walking through a haunted house and jumping three feet off the ground and screaming like a girl (oh that’s right, I am one) because some green hand shot out from a hiding place in the wall is hysterical.

Think of all the fall festivals to attend and the fried dough to eat. Don’t forget about the craft shows to go to just in time before the holiday and shopping season. It is interesting to see what someone else designs and makes. I love homemade anything!

This is the best time of year to start a blazing fire in the fireplace, turn on a table lamp, and sit on the sofa with my feet tucked up beneath me, a glass of spiked hot cocoa or a good wine (in my case that would be champagne) and read a terrific book. Even reading with someone at the other end of the sofa, our feet touching, makes me feel all warm and squishy inside.

Probably the best part of fall is the time spent with one special person going on short hikes, walking hand in hand or in some instances glove to mitten. Then when it’s time for bed, crawling under the three layers of blankets and shoving my ice cold toes between very warm, hairy legs and waiting for a yelp before I giggle and get pinned to the mattress.

This is why I am ready for and love FALL.