Autumn!!!!

A strange and wondrous thing happened in my house yesterday.  The heater came on!!  It officially feels like fall now!  I realize that "fall" started almost a month ago but when my kids are still running around outside in t-shirts and shorts, it is hard to really feel like it is fall. 
I have a love/hate relationship with fall and winter.  I love the smells of all the spiced breads, ciders and pies.  I love being able to wear some of my comfy clothes, I love curling up in front of a cozy fire and I love decorating my house for the changing seasons.  What I don't love is actually having to go anywhere and get out in the cool weather.  I am fairly cold natured so it seems no matter how much I layer up, once I actually go outside, I feel cold all day.  If you give me a cold blustery day where I can stay inside curled up next to the fire with a cup of coffee and some pumpkin muffins and watch the deer passing by outside my window, I'm in heaven.
I am glad it finally feels like fall though.  I have had enough of the insane heat we have had this year!  Now that it feels like fall, I can actually change out my decorations.  "But Gem," you say, "there was nothing preventing you from decorating earlier."  That is very true, my dear friends, but it is hard to get in the spirit when you walk outside and it is 90 degrees.  Here is my dining room table which, aside from the tree during Christmas, is always the focal point of all my seasonal decorating.

Next time I go grocery shopping I will have to buy a pie pumpkin and make some awesome pumpkin muffins!  Happy fall to everyone!!!