Fall Traditions

I enjoy the summer with it's heat and outdoor water-related activities. My husband loathes the heat but I love hanging out in shorts and a t-shirt, soaking up the sun while at the same time enjoying escape into an air-conditioned environment. But I'm not sad to see summer leave because my favorite season follows. Fall just exudes comfort and coziness. It's time to start the fires in the fireplace, smell the rain and feel the crispness of the air in the mornings. The trees are turning and losing leaves. And now it's time to start prepping for the upcoming holidays, which always seem to fly by in a blur toward the end.

The family headed up to Apple Hill today, a Fall favorite my husband and I have always enjoyed. We threw our diets out the window when we enjoyed a Boa Vista apple fritter (but resisted the urge to purchase the frozen apple pie, which continued to call to me as we drove away :'( As we drove up to what my son calls the 'pukin patch', his mouth literally dropped at the sight of endless orange balls. My husband and I hurried to educate him on proper pumpkin patch etiquette (i.e. no throwing, dropping or kicking the pumpkins). He was content with running from pumpkin to pumpkin and touching each one, shouting, 'pukin'! We later took him on a little train ride around a duck pond at El Dorado farms, which he learned how to stand in line and wait your turn (not something he necessarily enjoyed doing but he hung in there).

Last night we hung with our good friends, who are originally from Sweden. They mentioned a tradition their family indulges in at this time of year, which is a warm drink called Glug. I enjoy the virgin glug, which is a sweet combination of sugar, cinnamon, raisin, orange and clove flavors. It's when brandy or other liquor item is added kind of kills the flavor for me. But to each his own! I'm the same way when it comes to Egg Nog - the less added the better.

My family has a rather strange but long standing tradition simply called 'Fred' (yeah, my relatives reading this right now are shaking their head with this one). The original Fred was a (very tacky) laughing Buddha statue purchased by my older cousins at a flea market. Legend tells of this well thought-out purchase was a result of an exorbitant amount of alcohol. Fred was passed from person to person in our family on Christmas Eve. When you saw your name on the strangely large present you knew you were in for a one year stay. When Fred was presented to his new host family, a letter was read aloud detailing his adventures from the past year. Fred was happy, adventurous and a bit of a lush (do we sense a pattern?). He loved to chase women and always seemed to adapt well to his environment. If you became the Fred host for the year, then the rule was Fred must remain in the open at your residence, which excludes any closets or garages. At the end of the year Fred is passed onto another host family. The sad thing was the original Fred was lost along the way, so Fred Jr. emerged to keep on the tradition. Ok, we're weird.

What Fall traditions exist in your world?