Apples, mums, gourds, mulled wine, and pumpkins, oh my!
I absolutely love this time of year. The crisp days of Fall are here. I love everything about the season. I love the planning, and memories made this time of year. I love the traditions of this season. I love the hoodies, bonfires, hayrides, pumpkin patches, Halloween costumes, and time spent with each other this season. There is nothing like the peak of when the leaves change colors and stepping outside looks like a painting with the brilliance of the trees.
If your children are anything like mine, we have been discussing and prayerfully considering our Halloween costumes with as much thought as someone naming their child since August. We have had an Amazon cart full of every costume imaginable. My son has had everything from the Incredible Hulk, Captain America, a pirate, police officer, an astronaut, and a race car driver on his list of potential costumes. My daughter has had every princess dress available on Amazon in my cart and frequently asks to peruse her list on my phone. She was insistent on the fact that her dress must light up. If the dress doesn’t light up, don’t even bother showing it to her. And if the wand and crown light up, too, well, that is an added bonus. She’s decisive and knows what she wants, which I can appreciate.
These Halloween costumes are not just for one night. These bad boys will make their way on a train ride, to a trunk-or-treat event, a party with friends, to school for the class party, and to Grandma’s house. So, whatever they get, they better like it because it’s basically your uniform for the second half of this month.
This season is filled with so many events that I treasure. I absolutely love taking my family to the Headless Horseman at Conner Prairie. We all make sure we are on the same hayride time and get an obscenely large bag of kettle corn. We enjoy watching the old cartoon of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. We walk around the wide expanse of Conner Prairie as a family with the scent of bonfire in the air. We will pop into the Apple Store for a caramel apple. Side note: they have the BEST caramel apples at the Conner Prairie Apple Store because they cut the apple into slices and then add the caramel and nuts, making it so much easier to eat.
This season cannot come and go without a nod to the Sullivan train to Pumpkintown at the Allisonville location. While I never thought the Sullivan Express Christmas train could be topped, the train to Pumpkintown was introduced several years ago and is equally wonderful!
Our church has a fabulous Trunk-or-Treat event that all of the kids are chomping at the bit for all month. This is one of the first events that they get to showcase their Halloween costume. The amount of candy that is purchased and distributed for this event is remarkable. The car decorations are over-the-top, and I love it. Our kids come out like they robbed a bank with the loot and are thrilled. A tradition with our best friends is to go to our friends’ house after the trunk-or-treat event and it’s truly become one of my favorite things of the season. The kids are all friends and tear up the house while we spend wonderful time with our friends.
This is also the season of chili. What I have come to learn as an adult is that chili is really however your mom made it when you were a kid. When I met my husband, I had to pivot because his chili was completely different from what I was used to as a kid, but it’s delicious. His chili is not the one he grew up having – it’s his own recipe and absolutely delicious. Chop up some jalapenos and throw them and some sour cream and hot sauce on top – I can taste it! I love the smell of a big batch on the stove and the sounds of a football game in the background, with a batch of dip sitting out for all to munch as they pass through.
October also brings the blessed week of Fall Break. This year, we rented a huge house up in Michigan overlooking the lake with our friends and everyone brought their kids. Everyone runs around and plays while the adults talk, drink, solve all the problems of the world, and eat. The men all stand around and grunt while they smoke whatever hunk of meat and the women drink wine, gossip, and take turns yelling at the kids.
This season is special because of who we spend it with. It’s the smell in the air, the bonfires, that special hoodie, the perfect bowl of chili, the hayrides, trick-or-treating, the pumpkin patch, the costumes, the fall drives, the leaves, and the candy. Not to mention a big batch of mulled wine.
The traditions and people are what make this memorable. Fall, without question, is and always will be one of my kindred spirits.
Megan Rathz is a wife, mother, and teacher. She says everything she has ever learned in life came from her Master Gardener mother.