School Has Started

Well, school has started here in Pennsylvania. The air is now crisp and smells like fall. And about half of us are depressed because summer zoomed by!

But the good news is I'm about to start a Christmas story. It's part of a two for one anthology to be released in 2010. So once again, I begin fall thinking about Christmas...about iced sugar cookied and hot cocoa, presents, evergreens, and all things pumpkin.

This year I also did a Christmas club, so I have a nice check coming for shopping! I didn't get as much in as I wanted but a few extra hundred dollars will be just enough to make this holiday extra special.

I know Thanksgiving is in there...and my daughter's "milestone" birthday...but those are just nice stepping stones to the big event. We'll have a Thanksgiving bash at my mother's and a gathering for friends and family for Sarah's birthday...which probably means we have to rent a hall! LOL

My nephew plays on his high school football team, so that will be a huge part of our fall fun! Miss Maddie is back in dance. Oh and Jake starts pre-kindergarten. I'm sure we'll get a few good stories out of the adventures of Jake (or Jake's teacher!) LOL

This weekend we also meet on the Eastern side of the state for the Annual Meier weekend. Years ago, when my sister-in-law and her husband and son lived on a farm, we'd spend Labor Day weekend at "the farm". The kids would do all kinds of crazy farm things, the women would plan menus, shop and cook, the men would play golf...and groups would go to Gettysburg for ghost tours and battle field tours.

We'd sit outside and talk into the wee hours on nights just beginning to feel the nip of fall, and we'd have a big picnic on Sunday afternoon.

Now Barb no longer lives on a farm. She lives in a lovely two story red brick house on the edge of farm country, so only a few of us actually spend the weekend. There's no barn for hide and go seek. And there are a heck of a lot more of us who golf.

But it's the one time in the year when we all get together for a picnic and see how the nieces and nephews have grown, talk about life and simply enjoy each other's company.

susan