Autumn: The Very Bestest

“Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall” 
- F. Scott Fitzgerald

The air is becoming crisp.

The temperatures dropping (and then hopping back up in that Utah sort of way, never truly wanting to make up its mind about these things) and the leaves on the trees are beginning to turn. It is still mostly green, but those greens are fading to yellows and some reds and oranges are even beginning to peak out as well.

It's autumn.

This is my favorite time of year. Pumpkin flavored everything has invaded full force, taking no prisoners. The complaints and cheers have sounded. Most have taken their side, defending or criticizing the undoubtedly and inarguably over done and over sold idea of having pumpkin in anything and everything you put in your mouth. I'll enjoy it while it lasts, because I like the flavors and it’s a fleeting thing, soon to be lost to the flavors of the coming winter seasons, like peppermint, which I don’t like at all.

It’s the time of year where fresh harvested foods are easy to find, they are comfort foods with flavors for those cold days we all know are coming. Old fashioned recipes to help warm oneself while the wind howls outside, the world quickly changing in that step between summer and winter.

Fresh apple cider and rich hot chocolate.

It is the beginning of cuddle season.

The beginning of hot chocolate hunting, my annual search to discover the store, restaurant or coffee shop with the best, but for now nothing beats that rich flavor I grew up with, the one we got on special occasions as children. Family gatherings and Christmas morning, but Christmas is still a ways off and I don’t take any issue with that fact.

This is my season. Fall.

A time of change.

I’m breaking out the beanies and the hoodies along with the sweatpants I’ve missed since spring got too warm to wear them.

Fall really is the season of comfort from the clothes to the food and the colors. I love spring, and parts of winter, as long as I’m not freezing outside, and similarly I enjoy parts of summer as long as there is air-conditioning somewhere close by.

But Autumn is my favorite and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.