Fall in Fast-Forward

Have you ever noticed that the time right before Halloween to the time right after New Year's Day always goes by in a blur? It is one garbled mess of costumes, family gatherings, office parties, and all the food in the world. Before you know it, BAM! It's the new year and store shelves are stuffed with Valentines. It's nuts.

Be that as it may, I know that I am not alone when I say that this particularly crazy time of year is one of my favorites. It means falling leaves, trick-or-treat, Halloween parties at school (which included one child SO into his Big Bad Wolf outfit that he refused to change out of it all day). It means laughing with my sister and cousin on the front porch of my parents house as we try and make sense of our dysfunctional Thanksgiving Dinner, Thanksgiving-giving, and BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING (which my work schedule forced me to miss last year). It means a crazy outdoor Half Marathon on the coast of Massachusetts in DECEMBER. It means Christmas shots with my family, the Nativity Play, and my father driving us around on Christmas Eve to look at our neighbors elaborate Christmas-light displays. And when it's all over, it means there is only a month and change until the Disney Princess Half Marathon. Awesome.

One of the perks of being a schoolteacher (aside from the obvious benefit of working with children and giving them a positive educational experience, of course) is that every once in a while you get to enjoy a fabulous three day weekend. We don't have school on Monday in observance of Veteran's Day, and while I know that most of that day will be eaten up by the loads of homework that I have been putting off, the day will still be accompanied by the wonderful feeling associated with a day off from work.


So that's that. I hope everybody is enjoying their autumn. But before I log off, I WILL share with you two wonderful surprises that I found when I got home from work yesterday evening.


The first is a package of energy gels sent from my sister in Maine. They were a totally unexpected and USEFUL gift (expect some sort of play on 'All I Want For Christmas is GU' later in the season....)

I tried the raspberry this morning before my run. Pretty darn good.




The second is something that I knew about already, but had kind of forgotten about. In an attempt to make me jealous, Ben took a bunch of selfies of him and the cat as they snuggled one afternoon while I ran some errands. This one is my favorite.




Happy Saturday!!