The First Day of Fall

I am determinedly celebrating Fall today despite the 92° temperature. Fall doesn't really exist when you live south of the 30th parallel. But elsewhere, it is my favorite time of the year. When the kids were little, we took lots of autumn walks for the pure joy of crunching through the leaves on the sidewalk. And we would rake up big piles of fallen leaves and then bury ourselves in them just for the photo ops. Of course, Fall food is fabulous. We would can the apples, plums, and pears from our yard. The pears made lovely pear butter. The plums were so small we would just fill the jars with them whole, and they would gleam at us like deep purple, velvety jewels from the rows of bottles. We kept a basket piled high with apples for everyone who came. Patrick kept the dehydrator filled and purring away, wafting appley scents through the garage into the house. We would buy a case of tomatoes to make salsa, maybe while listening to Saturday General Conference on the radio. And we would start making soup again - chili, chicken and wild rice, lentil, my mom's turkey soup. The crisp air had us in sweaters and jackets and building fires in the evenings. And I would bake, especially cookies like ginger snaps or peanut butter or oatmeal raisin. We have made caramel apples - some for us and some to share - every Fall for more than 10 years now. It was so fun to snuggle up in warm, cozy jammies, and read "scary" stories like Big Pumpkin, The Little Old Woman Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything, and the Little Bear Goblin story. We would often carve a pumpkin on Hannah's birthday, and have Cincinnati chili before trick-or-treating. Thanksgiving was so fun at Grandma Carter's house. Her homemade bread and butter pickles were the best. As my kids have grown, we have new Fall in Florida traditions, like watching General Conference at the Beach House, or going to the football games at the high school. I still love to make Fall food. One of our recent favorite additions to the season is ginger ale and apple cider. Last year Hannah's birthday was celebrated with a chocolate pumpkin cake that is to die for. It will be back. And we love, love, love spending Thanksgiving with Aunt Jill, Uncle David, and our cousins. Hannah's inflatable turkey is always up to act as beacon to the travel-weary cousins. It is so fun to cook with my husband and my sister. Patrick likes to try new stuffing recipes. I think Jill and I have the most fun with the pies. We are darn good at making pies, if I do say so myself. And the annual talent show has become very memorable. Autumn life is good. Even south of the 30th parallel.