Halloween: Then and Now

Halloween is sneaking up unbelievably fast. I am completely at a loss as to what to be this year, especially since I've been told the line has been drawn at being Kate Middleton. It's cruel, really.

On Sunday, my boyfriend and I took a trip to the local orchard, where we participated in a great wine tasting experience and walked around in the beautiful fall weather. The wine was delicious, and we ended up buying four bottles, including two bottles of our favorite from the afternoon: Sparkling Sweet Peach, which had a fantastic fruity flavor and would be perfect for a brunch or luncheon, or with a great milk chocolate. Yumm!

The weather cooperated with our little outing, and we enjoyed the beautiful sunshine set against the changing leaves, it was the perfect afternoon. We got a good laugh when we decided to just wander around the orchard and walk in between the rows of trees: the entrance was blocked off with a collection of fun activities for kids. There were inflatables, games, even face painting stations, and the smell as we got closer hinted at a small petting zoo. Thwarted, we turned around and headed toward the makeshift "pumpkin patch" which was closer to the front of the orchard rather than the pick-your-own pumpkin section, and had a good laugh at the kids who were completely overwhelmed as they tried to pick up pumpkins almost as big as themselves.

Enter my story about a pumpkin carving experience. When I was a kid, I loved carving pumpkins. My favorite part was cleaning out the inside and squishing the insides of the pumpkin through my fingers. I loved it so much that I would having the pumpkin completely emptied and then put all the insides back in only to take them out again. Yeah, I was weird. A few years ago, a couple friends from college and I carved pumpkins. We went to a very conservative school in Michigan, and most of the other girls in the dorm made happy-looking pumpkins. Come on, it's Halloween. We decided to challenge that with our masterpieces, Chuck and Ralph, aptly named for their unfortunate action's slang. Almost better than the pumpkins themselves were the reactions we got from everyone else in the dorm.

Have you done anything creative with your pumpkins? Any great Halloween plans this year?

Oh, But The Leaves

I have an announcement.

It's hugely exciting.

Are you ready??

The leaves are turning color!!! I love this time of year. It's beautiful here in Michigan during the autumn months, and even more exciting is the fact that fall means winter is just around the corner, and do you know what that means? Christmas. I love absolutely everything about Christmas. The lights, the music, the gently falling snow glistening under the street lamps, the hot cocoa by the Christmas tree..everything.

My boyfriend took this photo on Michigan State
University's campus last year--beautiful!

I'm getting ahead of myself. Fall. As a kid, I looked forward to packing up all my new school supplies, unpacking, and then repacking them and heading off to school in the morning. Fall also meant my birthday had arrived (even though now it means I'm getting older, apparently), and that provided an excitement all its own. Plus, what's more fun as a kid than raking up the leaves into a huge pile and promptly throwing yourself into them, effectively destroying the newly raked lawn?

This year, fall meant a new beginning for me, in a way. It felt a little strange not packing up my possessions to move back into a cramped dorm room, but not doing so also began to solidify the thought that if I so choose, I could be done with school forever. Very strange feeling, indeed.

I'm officially not a student now, though I believe I will always be a student at heart. New things fascinate me, and I thoroughly enjoy soaking up the information contained between the binding of a brand new book. The amount of books I read increases tenfold as the weather turns cooler, I think. To me, there is nothing more satisfying than being surrounded by the beauty in nature with my nose in a book, curled up in a cozy blanket, and something warm to drink. Ah, perfection.