Happy Fall!

Happy Fall!

Yes, I know I am late with this greeting.  It seems my family (as many) was busy fighting off seasonal illnesses, and we completely missed the first day of fall! We have this nice little tradition that we started when my son just a little thing, and we called it out "Fall Celebration".  On the first day of fall, we would take out all our fall decorations and decorate the inside and outside of the house (wreaths and gourds and pumpkins and such ... Halloween decor is left for the week of Halloween).  We would also buy our pumpkin (but not yet carve it), make caramel apples, and make some sort of centerpiece for our dining table (usually involving those little mini pumpkins and gourds and candles). 

Although we missed having our fall celebration on the actual first day of fall this year, we did still have it.  This past Tuesday was our day dedicated to fall celebration, and it was a great one! We are still munching on caramel apples, and enjoying the season. 

I have to fess up here, though.  This sounds all fun and quaint, however, I have to be honest about why this whole celebration came about in the first place.  See ... I adore the spring and summertime.  I am a beach girl.  I love picnics at the park.  I love fishing and crabbing.  I love the sunshine and looking out on a beautiful marsh.  I love cookouts, and well ... I just love summer! I, selfishly, decided that instead of mourning the end of summer as I often did (well, mourning is a harsh word ... 'clinging desperately' fits, though) ... instead of dreading the summer's end, I decided to begin celebrating fall's beginning.  There are so many wonderful things about each season and each 'time'.  Once we started focusing on that, things got a lot brighter :) So from that, this wonderful family tradition came about, and we just love, love, love it!

Enjoy this time of the year ... all the yummy fall scents, leaves changing (for those of you fortunate enough to live somewhere more north of here that has this beautiful phenomenon), a little nip in the air, festivals, state fairs, the anticipation of the holidays, and so on and so on!

Jessica