Reflection | Autumn Snapshots

Guys. I had every intention of posting throughout November. I even took some styled pumpkin photos to share with you. But alas, I couldn’t find the time!

Fall is the busiest season for me — both at work and at home. It’s filled with moments that require you to live in them, which we could all stand to practice a little more anyway.

It’s the season where the youth theatre at work hosted six performances their latest production. At first I thought, I am going to get so tired of this show. Then I was completely blown away with the casts’ talent the first night and caught as many pics and videos as a I could for social media. Then three shows in, I really started to live in the moment and watch, remain impressed, feel proud, learn the songs, and catch the jokes and tiny details that I missed before. When I look back and reflect on that, I wonder how many details we miss when we’re rushing through life or trying to capture everything on our phones.

After two full weekends of events, I was able to embrace autumn in our house. For us, that means the smell of roasting pumpkins, Mr. Heid’s curses as he works to make the perfect pie crusts, gravy thickening on the stove, and Alice’s Restaurant on repeat. By the end of it, we’ve hit every grocery store in the area, Mr. Heid’s thrown at least one whole crust away, Keiko and I have had our fill of scrap pie crusts, we’ve made beautiful pies and delicious gravy to share with our families for Thanksgiving, and we’re hunkering down to watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

Despite our busy schedule, we managed to find the time to take two little road trips to Windy Hill Orchard & Cider Mill. I was introduced to the orchard back when I was in living in Rock Hill and immediately loved it! Chickens clucking around, you-pick apple trees, fresh baked cider donuts, pigs eating fallen apples - ugh! the list goes on.

On our first trip, we caught up with friends we hadn’t seen in awhile and went back to one of their places for a home-cooked dinner. On our second trip, we played games with our usual crew and purchased two carboys of cider for home brewing! They are currently fermenting in our extra bathroom tub (easy cleanup in case something goes wrong). It’ll be awhile before they’re ready, but I can’t wait to taste our hard cider!

We went to our hometown for Thanksgiving to celebrate with our families. This year, my brother surprised the family with a visit home. He’s been studying in CA, they haven’t seen him since July and weren’t expecting to a visit until Christmas! He trusted my sister and I with keeping the secret and sneaking him into the house late Thanksgiving Eve. It was a beautiful moment to watch our parents’ faces when they saw him on Thanksgiving morning. After our Thanksgiving meal with Mr. Heid’s family, we went to a local Christmas tree farm and picked out the perfect tree to bring home.

These are the moments we living for — the love, the surprises, the togetherness, the traditions, the family, the friendship. What did you enjoy most this fall?

I know fall’s technically not over until Dec. 21, buuuut it’s pretty much Christmas now, which screams winter to me (not to mention that it’s literally freezing here). So happy winter everyone!

xoxo

K