I am so looking forward to fall. One of the reasons is because my granddaughters, who have spent a lot of summer days here while their parents work, will be back in school. I had forgotten how wonderful it is for children to go back to school. Don’t get me wrong. I love and adore the girls, but they are messy and they fight and argue. Children, parents, and grandparents get very cranky near the end of summer.

I’ll be glad to see the hot weather gone and the days shorten. I welcome the rain and hope for winter snow. I am looking forward to cooking comfort food once again – pot roast, stew, soup, pumpkin pie, biscuits. It will be great to curl up in front of a fire and read the books I’ve been meaning to get to. It wil be fun to take road trips to see the leaves turn color. I will be able to travel to far distant places if I feel like it. Fall is a time of renewal, time to get back to my business, and just maybe accomplish some of the things on my 2004 to-do list.

October kicks off the holiday season and the fourth quarter. It is the time to go to the pumpkin patch and pick up pumpkins to carve into jack-o-lanterns and later make into pumpkin pies. It is the time to find Halloween costumes. My daughter tells me that the best place to find costumes is at thrift stores. Or you can buy fabic and make a costume. When next year comes and the costume either does not fit or your child wants to be something else, you can take the costume to the thrift store and buy an “old” new one.

The other day I took a small poll of my four granddaughters, and asked them their number one favorite holiday. They all said Christmas. I asked them their number two favorite, three said Halloween. The youngest, who is four, said Christmas was her second and third favorite. I doubt she remembers Halloween. As for me, Halloween is my favorite holiday, except for Christmas and my birthday.

-Annie Davis