Tues Twenty-Two 092209: I Love Autumn!

According to Answers.com, Fall begins this year at 4:18 CST today — the moment of truth when the sun starts heading toward the Southern hemisphere. Wow! Excitement abounds. Autumn is my favorite time of year. I think I’ve said it before. In celebration of the day, I give you a biggie sized Tuesday Twenty-Two: Things I Love About Fall — the silly and the profound.

1. My Birthday — the big 4. 0. this year! Stay tuned in October for 40 awesome things that happened in 1969, including me!

2. Squiggle Bug’s Birthday — We brought him home from the hospital on Thanksgiving Day in 2006 and have been thankful ever since.

3. Crunching leaves under my feet.

4. Wearing long sleeves.

5. That blue sky. You know the one.

6. Crisp nights.

7. Busy Bee Birthday Bonfire Bash — the annual weekend on the farm turned shared celebration of our fall birthdays, complete with bonfire, hot dog roast and s’mores. Oh, and the best gifts — dirty-faced kisses, hugs, and giggles!

8. College football. And the much-applauded living room tailgating parties they inspire. (With popcorn.)

9. Decorating our house with pumpkins and scarecrows — with three helpers and one Quiver to climb up in the attic.

10. The GREAT new brown striped bamboo placemats I bought this weekend. And trying my best to wait until October 1st to put them out. Just because anticipation is so fun.

11. Boots.

12. Sitting on the front porch swing in a sweatshirt.

13. Candy corn.

14. “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” — and the 6734 times we’ll watch it.

15. Fleece.

16. Holding hands.

17. Garnering a grateful heart.

18. Mama’s sweet potatoes with orange slices.

19. Making turkeys out of oreo cookies, candy corn, malted milk balls, and chocolate icing. Hello sugar!

20. Robert Frost’s “Nothing Gold Can Stay” and “Reluctance“, both wonderfully melancholoy in contrast to my general autumn mood.

21. Orange.

22. Turning over a new leaf.