Top Five Reasons to Get Excited About Fall

Cross-posted and archived from DC Metro Moms.  Original post August 22, 2008.

My husband asked for hot tea the other day. My first reaction was to look at him like he was the 5th horseman of the Apocalypse but instead, I just sort of sniffed the air and agreed. It felt like hot tea time. Yet, here we are in August.

Two days later a friend of mine stated that it was time to wear jeans. She was declaring summer officially over despite it being about 90 degrees outside. My inbox is loaded with back-to-school ads, requests for advice posts about the new school year and the latest fall fashions. There was even that one ominous Halloween craft story request. Already?

It's not that I hate summer. In fact, it is my favorite season of the four. It's just that about this time every year be it the media frenzy that surrounds us about purple being the latest greatest accent color and the intense heat and humidity of a DC August just seems to wear us all down. While we load up on the summer memories and cram in our last moments in beach trips, camping and chasing fireflies we are already looking ahead to fall and it's cool crispness. Our minds our beginning to see the fall foliage and smell the scent of fallen leaves. I for one am anxious to see pumpkins at road side stands and drink hot apple cider while watching my kid go crazy racing a toilet bowl race car around hay bales as my husband tries to find the perfect tiny pumpkin. I've compiled a list of other classic Fall moments I've begun to get excited about as well. They are about as American as apple pie I think.

1. No longer will your DVR make you weep at its empty queue. Now it is suddenly chocked full of mouth-wateringly bad reality TV shows, never before seen CSI episodes, brand spankin' new comedies that you will watch once and realize you still do find comfort in the arms of Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer (which can only be the only reason that show is always at the top).

2. Back to school! Yes, we moms are excited to have the wee ones out of our hair and our kids are excited about all those glittery Bratz belly t-shirts, hip huggers, backpacks and notebooks they suckered us into buying at our local big box store. What's better than paying for your tiny daughter to look like a fem-bot?

3. Halloween candy on the shelves already with only a scant 70 days to stockpile your loot. Do you have your spiel ready for the moms on the block about how you were going to make your tiny tot the exact replica of Tyrone from the Backyardigans but at the last minute had such a personal family crises (i.e. you don't sew even a stitch or own a sewing machine) you just had to settle for a store bought costume. It just breaks your heart in two doesn't? Sniff... sniff.

4. Recipes for the "perfect" down-home, classically elegant, all done by your blood, sweat and tears Thanksgiving have begun clogging your inbox, mailbox and magazine rack at your local grocery store. Your smile freezes each time your local grocer hands you helpful turkey roasting hints. Why not begin to feel the pressure to make perfect napkin origami are and cornucopia centerpieces months in advance?

5. You just spent the summer organizing your attic. Really, you did. Now it's time to get that holiday stuff out that you just shoved way in the back.

I'm geared up for Fall now, aren't you?