November 4, 2014 WHY I LOVE THE FALL! Squeeeeee! I’m SO excited! No, nothing super awesome happened. MacKenzie didn’t melt like the Wicked Witch of the West, my house didn’t grow wings and fly me to Disneyland, and Tyra Banks didn’t show up at my door to give me a life-sized, autographed cardboard cutout of herself. (OK, so the last one would be kind of weird and creepy, but how awesome would those other things be?!?) I’m just excited because I love, love, LOVE the fall!!! First of all, I get giddy about all things apple. I LOVE me some apple pie, apple cider rocks my socks off, and don’t even get me started on candy apples. Yum! Also, I’m all about fall clothes. I’m wearing this super huge, totally warm, fuzzy sweater right now, and it feels like I’m getting a big hug from the world’s most friendly bear! I’m also wearing these totally cool brown boots that are SO big a small family of chipmunks could probably live in them! But it’s not just the food and the clothes that make autumn so flipping awesomesauce. I also love how pretty it gets when the leaves fall from the trees. It’s crazy beautiful outside right now! Seriously, looking out of my window is like looking into one of those kaleidoscope thingamajigs filled with bright reds, oranges, and yellows. Since my mad art skills aren’t going to use themselves, I decided to do something crafty with the leaves near my house so I could give them away as gifts to people I love. I think I came up with some really cool ideas! (And by “I,” I mean Google. You’re so clever and creative, Google!) I made this cool leaf wreath for my parents. It’s just like a Christmas wreath, except it has leaves instead of evergreens. For Brianna, I made leaf creatures on pieces of construction paper. I made this super cool butterfly using yellow and red leaves. She’s going to TOTALLY love it!! Then for Chloe and Zoey, I made leaf bouquets. It sounds complicated, but it’s super easy! You just roll a bunch of leaves together so they look like a rose bud. Then you do this a dozen times and tie a string around all the bottom parts, and voila! A leave bouquet! I even made something for my neighbor, Mrs. Wallabanger. It’s a bottle of vanilla body spray with leaf decorations on the bottle. (She’s been rocking a funky old lady perfume recently, so I’m hoping she’ll ditch that and use this instead!) I want to make something for Brandon too, but I don’t want to look like I have WAY too much time on my hands. And I wonder if he’ll think I’m a HUGE weirdo if I’m like, “Happy Fall! No, I’m not secretly an overgrown preschooler, but here’s this random thing I made you with leaves and glue!” I think maybe he’ll appreciate it, and November IS the month that’s all about gratitude. (Thanksgiving…yet another reason to love the fall!!) What do you think? Should I make something for him? And WHAT? Is there anything made out of leaves that a guy would want, or does that even matter? Is it the thought that counts?