It's October--my favorite month! There're so many things I love about this time of year. Cool evenings and warm sunny days. The sky so intensely blue it brings tears to my eyes. The colorful array of trees, the smell of burning leaves. And oh so many more!
October is my SWEETheart's favorite month too and because of our shared love of this month, we were married in October (years ago). Although to be fair, we weren't married on the day he wanted. Not only is October his favorite month, but he adores Halloween. So, you guessed it, he wanted to be married on October 31 and he wanted our wedding colors to be orange and black. Now, I know many people would think that was just fine, but having ultra conservative families, that was just not going to fly. We settled on the week before Halloween and our wedding colors did not include orange or black. Whew!
Since my SWEETie loves Halloween so much, he's been the creator of many self made Halloween costumes. His tastes varies but he favors the gross and disgusting. And it never seems to matter to him how uncomfortable or difficult the costume is to wear. In fact, I think the more difficult it is, the better he likes it. As long as people scream, laugh or say "ewwww, gross" he's a happy camper.
Years ago, when we lived in Indiana, he would dress up for the trick or treaters and do his best to scare them. Sounds affects, mannequin's arms hanging out windows, spider webs everywhere and him dressed up as the creepiest, most vile and disgusting creature he could come up with. Yes, we had lots of trick or treaters! And then one Spring day, the pay off came. He was given what he considered the ultimate compliment. He was working in the yard and two ladies were walking down the street in front of our house. He overheard one tell the other that he's the man who dresses so creepy for Halloween and she thought maybe something might be wrong with him. He loved it! The man does love attention.
Though we usually talk about books on this blog (and I'm not opposed to talking about them now) I thought it might be nice to share fun, fall memories or traditions. Each Friday in October, we'll get together to giggle, chat and share. And, as I mentioned in another post, I'll have a 'grab-bag' giveaway to one random commenter. What's that? It's going to be a box filled with books, some old, some new, bookmarks, excerpts and surprises. I have tons of bookmarks and other things I've collected and though it pains me, I have no room for them anymore. My intent is to introduce you to authors you may not have tried before. And yes, I will always include one of my signed books too.
The winner will be announced tomorrow morning, giving you plenty of time to come up with a fun Fall memory or, if that won't work for you, just stop in and say hi. We're here to have fun! Honest!
And since October is best known for Halloween, next Friday, we'll talk about our favorite horror book. And no, you don't have to have read one. I know some people don't like stuff like that, so, again, a comment will do just fine to get you entered in the giveaway. But give it some thought. You've got a whole week to come up with a scary book recommendation.
Okay, let's get started. And don't forget to come back on Monday for Recommend Monday!
Happy first day of October all!
47 comments:
From Kay B.:
My best memories was when I dressed up has a horse, had a saddle on my back and bridle in my mouth
Love to be scared, the best book/movie that scared me was "HELL HOUSE" love that !!!!
I LOVE FALL, it is my favorite time of year. All the colors change, and the smell of the fire places in the evening, plus I love the change in the clothes.
We have a tradition of attending the Harvest Fair. There is bobbing for apples, and lots of vendors with harvest time things, and homemade things. There is hot air balloon rides (which I still haven't braved) and face painting. The music is live and the food is not good for you, but brings a smile to my face. There is a micro brew tasting, since I don't drink, I just collect the collectable glasses lol. It is a great weekend, tons of fun and memories to last.
I am sure you are very happy that Orange and Black were not your wedding colors, but my hubby would have been impressed. His alma matter is Oregon State University, whos colors are orange and black ;o)
Enjoy your fall day.
Christy I would love to see your horse costume!! How cool.
When I was young we did not celebrate Halloween in Malta yet and just watched the trick and treating on TV shows. During the last years while I was not looking it has apparently crept its way into Malta too, so we are now gettign Halloween parties organised and kids going trick or treating though its not popular in the town where I live. This Halloween we are going to be in a farmhouse with my husband's sister and her family and her 12 year old son is organising a halloween party with my 8 year old. He has lots of plans or th enight so I will report when we get back :).
I love gritty murder books but horror is not my thing - books or movies. Which is strange, because when i was a kid I used to really want to watch horror movies but my eldest brother banned them for me (he appointed himself my tv watchdog - rolling eyes!). With time the fascination to watch one faded and i can nsaely say that horror movies do not entice me at all - and i can generally watch any type of film. At one point around 4 years ago i was doing film reviews for a local paper and i had to watch Saw 3 or 4. I watched the first parts with my eyes mostly closed. When a doctor was going to start opening the head of a character to do brain surgery I couldn't take it anymore and just left.
just home from carpal tunnel surgery so cant type well...or alot. loved trick or treating as a kid. cant get out a story today though. Love love fall. used to read stephep king but not any more. love the romance books now. lol
I am not much for Halloween but I LOVE FALL!!!! This is when I miss Vermont the most. I have never been anywhere that has captured the same feel and smell as Vermont in the fall.
We don't have any specific traditions but my mom always made apple crisp with Vermont Macintosh apples and we always had cider (the really good non-pasteurized stuff) at Thanksgiving.
This past weekend I was blessed enough to receive 2 bushels of Vermont Macs from some family friends. So I have been busy making applesauce, apple butter, apple cake, etc. And this weekend I will finally get to make my mom's apple crisp! YUMMY!!!!
Aly I understand what you mean by Vermont in the fall. I took my grandma on a trip to Maine a few years ago. It was the first of October and breath taking is the only way I know to describe it. One day I hope to go back during fall again. I've never seen such vivid colors. I grew up in Missouri so I "thought" I knew what a pretty fall was... nope not at all!!!
Fall is my absolute favorite time of year too. I am a sweatshirt and jeans kind of girl so its heavenly to me. I love the crisp feel in the air and most importantly the end to all the heat!! I remember growing up raking up all the leaves and jumping into them. I grew up on a huge farm and some of my cousins lived really close. We would roast marshmallows and hot dogs...ahhh.... to be a kid again!! I didn't realize how precious childhood was until I lost it. lol
Happy FAll everyone!!!
I have always loved the changing color of the leaves. My favorite memory will sound strange, but I was in the hospital for almost 3 months when I was pregnant. I was in all of October, and from the hospital window in Birmingham, I couldn't see any trees. My husband and several friends brought me lots of different color leaves so I could have fall in my room. It made me feel like I was getting to enjoy fall.
I still remember the guy who dressed up in our neighborhood to scare the kids on Halloween! LOL I haven't thought about that guy for years. What a great memory.
I LOVE October. It is my birthday month after all. ;-) But other than my birthday the whole "fall" scene. Football, the leaves turning color, pumpkin patches, apple picking. LOVE IT!
This is from Rebecca, who's also having problems posting and sent me this message on Facebook.
My favorite Halloween memory is taking my kids on the Haunted Hayride and touring the haunted house at South Montgomery Academy. :) I love to be scared, too. My favorite scary book is Stephen King's It. Most anything by Stephen King scares the bejeezus out of me. :)
Hey Christy and all!
I'm sorry it has taken so long for me to post. I had to think a while about what Fall and Autumn mean. Then it dawned on me - in this house we don't use those words. This time of year is simply known as FOOTBALL SEASON. Lots of great memories for this time of year, but since you're all lovers of romance, I'll say my favorite has to be my husband proposing to me on top of a mountain with an amazing view of the countryside below. It was a beautiful October day (pretty sure it wasn't on a Saturday or Sunday - couldn't miss a football game for mushy stuff. LOL)
Hi Christy, hi everyone,
its a great idea to share fall memories. I love this time of the year and october is my favorite month.
Ronlyn Iam born in October too - when is your birthday?
I love the change in nature when the leaves on the trees change the color - sadly there are very few forrests in northern Germany where I now live. I grew up in Bavaria(South of Germany) in a region with many forests and especially in October I miss the long walks in the woods.
Ronlyn I am an October girl too - when is your birthday ? May be we are born on the same day (3rd ?)
We have no Halloween tradition here, but a couple years back the children have started to disguise themselves and go from house to house,singing grizzly songs and ask for sweets.
The fist time I wasnt prepared and had nothing to hand out but this year I will be ready .
Always love October! Remember weekends camping up in Helen GA for Octoberfest. THE SMELLS campfires, best breakfast ever. If it was uncommonly warm we could still tube down the river and see the colors!
My best memories of fall are jumping in piles of leaves with my brothers, making popcorn balls with my mom and watching scary movies on Halloween.
Happy October everyone. I just arrived home from London and the weather in DC is amazing! Clear, cool, and just lovely. I'm severly jet-lagged and stayed out waayyyy too late on my last night.
I don't recall any significant fall traditions from my youth, but I must say I love the back to school now and getting that routine back in and having my house function like a well oiled machine.
Friends of ours have been having an annual "Surrender at Yorktown" party with Colonial era food and drink. It's on it's 4th year now and is really quite a fun night!!
Kay, love the idea of a horse costume! Hopefully it was a two-legged costume. Seems like it'd be very uncomfortable to walk around on all fours, especially if you were out trick or treating. (:
Hell House--was that an old Vincent Price movie or is that more recent?
Hope, I love Fall fairs and al the stuff that goes with it. The fragrances are amazing! Never been in a hot air balloon either, but would love to try that some time. Let me know if you ever do brave it!
LOL on the orange and black colors. My hubby is from Tennessee and has a particular affinity to orange anyway. I really dodged a double bullet there!
LOL, Luci, that's Kay costume. She was having trouble posting, so I copied her note from Facebook. I went to a costume party as a cat once. I think that's the only animal I've ever dressed as though.
Oh, let us know how the party goes. Love the idea of a halloween party in an old farm house. Fun!
What a wonderful brother you have to want to protect you from horror movies. However, I can't imagine sitting through Saw 1, much less the sequels (sequels always seem so much bloodier). I did try watching the first one and just couldn't stay with it. I love to be scared but do not like to be grossed out. Blood and gore is not scary to me, it's just, well...gross!
Laura, hope your surgery was successful. Sounds so painful! Feel better soon!
I loved trick or treating too. When we were really young, we'd pile up in the back of a truck filled with hay and go all over the small communities where I lived.
I used to read Stephen King too; he is one of the few authors that can really really scare me. That man is so talented it's downright scary on its own!
Oh Aly, all those wonderful things you're doing with those apples sounds fabulous! You are a true wonder woman!
Vermont is on my top ten places to visit one day. I would imagine it's got to be at its most beautiful in the fall.
Crystal, Maine is on my top ten list of places to visit too!
Yes, we used to have bonfires and roast hotdogs and marshmallows, sing campfire songs, drink hot chocolate and tell ghost stories. Aw, yes, childhood. I miss it!
Happy October. We try to go apple picking every year, but don't always have the time. I hope we'll get to go on a road trip to see the fall foliage.
Deb, that's a sweet memory. How wonderful that your friends and family did that for you!
Ronlyn, some people just really enjoy the whole 'let me see how much I can scare you' kind of thing. My honey is definitely one of them.
I don't like to be scared. Here's one of my mom's favorite stories of me: I have two older sisters and late one night, when we were very young, we snuck into the kitchen to treat ourselves to some homemade fudge my mom had made. We lived in a tiny house, so of course, my mom heard us. As we crept into the room, my mom was in the corner, waiting and jumped out at us. My sisters ran; I didn't. I tackled my mom and scratched and punched her. LOL I don't remember any of this. She told me years later. I don't know how old I was but I don't think she ever tried that again.
LOL, Kara, definitely can't forget that it's football season. There's nothing better than a Saturday afternoon, the air cool and crisp outside and we're sitting inside watching a football game while chili cooks on the stove. Mmm. I might have to make some this weekend!
And what a lovely story about your hubby proposing in October with a beautiful view below. Very romantic!
LOL Oh Christy that is funny! No wonder you are so great at writing suspense!!
Elke, it's so interesting to know what traditions are in other countries. So when the kids come to your house, do they wear scary costumes? What kind of treats do you plan to give out?
Bavaria sounds like a beautiful place to grow up. And happy birthday on Sunday! Hope it's wonderful!
Divewitch, that's sounds like such fun! When we lived in Tennessee, we went to some Octoberfests. Such fun, great music and food. Never went tubing down the river though. How pretty that must be, especially with all those beautiful colors.
Years ago, for one of our anniversaries, we went to Chattanooga. My hubby surprised me with a riverboat ride. The first half hour was fun, however, it was about a four hour trip, there were almost no chairs and it was freezing! We laugh about it now because we were so excited and it turned into such a long, agonizing trip.
Hey CrystalGB! Oh, I used to love popcorn balls. Haven't had those in years. And watching horror movies on Halloween is a family tradition. It think it's AMC that has a halloween movie horror fest and we usually sit down to watch several movies that day.
LOL Can't jump into leaves the way I used to when I was a kid. Allergic to all of that now, but it was fun then!
Hey Jane, love picking apples! There's just something about apples and pumpkins that say fall. I hope you get to see some fall foliage too. Not sure what the trees will do here this year. We may have had too much rain to have the beautiful colors like we usually do.
I miss the seasons...here in Houston it seems to go from way to hot to warm. I bought fall scented candles today to help get me get in the fall spirit.
My best memories about fall are playing in the leaves with my brother at my grandparents house and racing from house to house to see how much candy I could get while trick-or-treating.
Hi Christy, I love driving around looking at the beautiful fall colors. My favorite thing to do on a cold fall afternoon is snuggle up under a blanket with a book and drink warm apple cidar.
I absolutely LOVE FALL!! Sadly I live in southern California so we don't have much of a "Fall weather". I'm into the chilly weather where you can wear a sweater and jeans but the weather here doesn't allow that most of the time. That doesn't take away my fondness for Fall though. Why do I love Fall so much? well around this time, pumpkins are available! I love anything that has pumpkins in it: pumpkin pies, pumpkin breads,pumpkin pudding, and especially the Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino from Starbucks! Has anyone tried that? It's delicious!
Aside from that, I'm not a big Halloween fan. My family is super conservative so we don't celebrate Halloween. In fact, I've never been trick or treating before. I'm 21 now so I think I might be a bit too old for that. :)
My best memory so far has to be when my daughter finally understood what Halloween was and begged that everyday could be halloween so she could get free candy LoL
Allison, do the leaves not change in Houston? I would miss that too.
Oh, how I loved to go from house to house getting candy. It was so much fun when you got home to see what kind of good stuff you had. LOL I was always so impressed with the people who gave full sized candy bars. I thought they were wealthy! Never understood why the small pieces of candy were called 'fun sized'. (:
Susan, I love the idea of warm cider and a good book. Especially when it's so cold outside and you can sit by a window, snuggle up and enjoy the warmth. LOL Now I'm wishing for even cooler weather and I never do that!
Naomi, I loved the colors of pumpkin and the smell of it cooking, but I'm not too fond of eating it. Although I do remember having some really good pumpkin cookies once and I love pumpkin rolls! My family thinks I'm odd for not liking pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. However, I might have to try the pumpkin spice frappuccino. Sounds delicious.
And on the trick or treating...your teeth are probably much healthier for not having gone (:
Tayna, I love it! Your daughter's got the right idea. Candy everyday would work for me too!
Hi All
Sorry I'm late. I would just spoil your fun anyway because I'm a summer person. Although the leaves look pretty, I find it so depressing when the leaves start to change. Of course the tree in front of my house was the first one to show red leaves, but they are gorgeous. This is the week we switch from outdoor to indoor tennis. While it's great to play & not worry about the sun or wind, I'd still rather play outdoors. The other thing: shoes, I have to wear shoes. I want my sandals!!!
BTW don't enter me. I live too far away. Too much to ship up here.
Hi Christy,
I would love to see your horse costume!
I'm not much into Halloween now (except for the candy leftover, LOL)!
My favorite memory is when I dressed like Cleopatra (my mom made the costume for me) and I got alot of compliments!
Two years ago I relocated to Vancouver, BC from outside of Toronto, and this year I'm really missing everything that makes Fall my favourite time of year - the cooler breezes, brilliant colours of the turning trees, crunchy leaves, biting into a crisp apple picked in the orchard, and the rich, earthy smell. It's like all the senses are getting the signal that it's time to move on to the next phase of life.
A favourite memory is watching my 3 year old son hold his little sister's hand her first real Halloween & coaching her to say "Trick or Treat" at each door. This year the little girl who bellowed, "TICKATEET!" will be taking her son, exactly the same age she was, out for his first neighbourhood candy-grab. Funny how these traditions mark time marching on. Thank goodness for video cameras because this Grandma hates to be so far away!!
Christy,
most kids are disguised as little witches or vampires with scary face paint and they have much fun collecting their sweets. I plan to give them candybars (snickers or bounty), gummi bears, licorice and apples and tangerines.
What are the treats in America ?
Thank you for your birthday wishes - I plan to have a great day. Although it will be the fist time our son will not be there. He has just started his studies at a british university.
Mary G, I'm not a fan of cold weather by an means. My flannels usually come out in September when the temp falls below 85 degrees. LOL Sad, I know. However, I do love the sights, scents and anticipation that fall seems to bring. And I am a girl who loves to go barefoot 365, so I can identify with the shoe thing.
Oh well, we'll hope for a short winter!
P&RS Reader, LOL the horse costume was Kay's but I'd like to see it too. (:
Cleopatra! Wow, bet that was a very cool costume.
Did you do the Liz Taylor version?
TartTweetz, what a lovely descriptive voice you have! Those are the things I love about fall too. And the memories of taking your children trick or treating to your daughter taking her son this year are precious and brought tears to my eyes. (:
Elke, it sounds very similar to what we do here. Snickers are always a big treat, along with M&Ms, Milk Ways, candy corn and bunches of other too sweet, not good for you but oh so delicious treats!
Happy Birthday again!
I agree with you Christy. TartTweetz made me appreciate the view. I live on the border of Toronto, just east of the Rouge Valley. You can drive through the valley to avoid the main drag. Scenes from Pleasantville & X-Men were filmed in the valley. There's nothing but trees on both sides except for a small parking lot at the toboggan hill.
Right now those trees would be showing every color from green
to fiery red. I think I'll drive through there this weekend. Thanks
TartTweetz.
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