8 Things I’m Grateful For This Fall Season

It’s Thanksgiving here in Canada. My family usually gets together for a big turkey dinner with all the fixings but this year will be a bit different. This year I am sitting on my living room couch watching Thanksgiving episodes of Friends on Netflix. It’s the year of new traditions. 

With this being Thanksgiving, I thought it would be fun to share what I am grateful for this Fall season. This list is more of a playful post. I am just having fun with the holiday and using it as another way for my readers to get to know me. I am so very grateful for my family, the roof over our heads, our health, and the fact that my husband still has a job during this pandemic. What I really want to share is the things that bring me joy when the temperature drops and we are forced to be indoors more. 

Sweaters

To be more exact, hooded sweaters. I love a good hoodie. Being in a good sweater is the closest you can get to being wrapped in a blanket outdoors. This is me wearing one of my favorite hoodies sitting at Wasaga Beach this past September by a fire at dusk. It really doesn’t get any better than that.

Latte’s

One thing you will learn about me here is that I love coffee. I’ve always drank it but I didn’t really get into until I started working my full-time contract job at TIFF. This job required a lot of long days and late nights as we got closer to the festival in September. During the festival it was basically full steam ahead for 11 days straight. Coffee was this techies best friend. Then I had kids and my love affair with coffee became a relationship of dependency. Delicious, delicious dependency. I love coffee in latte form, soy lattes to be more exact. They make me oh so happy.

Pie

There is something about Autumn that I associate with pie. I know you can have pie anytime of the year but when the leaves start to change colour all I want is pie, all kinds of pies. Sweet or savory, I am a fan of both. Fill it with apples or pumpkin and serve warm with vanilla ice cream or with pork and cider or mushroom and thyme and serve it with mash potatoes and I’m drooling. 

Football

Yes, I am a Canadian but for some reason my Irish husband likes American football and now I do too. I like the strategy of the game and I enjoy yelling at the screen pretending I know what all the calls mean. It is just fun to sit with my husband and watch a game. Maybe I just like making the wings and other tasty things that go along with watching it. We don’t watch football as much as we used to. Maybe when the girls are older we will get back into it and make them fans too. 

Scary Movies

I love Halloween. It’s my favourite holiday. I don’t watch many scary movies throughout the year but once October hits I am all over them. I like the suspense and getting spooked. I am not a big fan of slasher movies but I have a special place in my heart for Halloween (1978) and Scream (1996). I gravitate more to supernatural scary movies like The Exorcist (1973) or The Ring (2002). A good thriller like The Sixth Sense (1999), Get Out (2017) or Silence of the Lambs (1991) also does the trick. 

Books

I love sitting down on my couch in my cozy sweater and reading socks with a good book. I am currently reading In The Dream House: A Memoir by Carmen Maria Machado and rereading Lamb: The Gospel According To Biff, Christ Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore. Both are very different but compelling. I am part of two book clubs, one with my friends and another with a neighbourhood mom group. They have been great for me because they force me to read and then socialize, albeit virtually. I don’t always finish the book on time but I do finish eventually. I always feel accomplished after I finish a book.

Crisp Mornings

My favorite season is Autumn. Autumn is just the right temperature. For the most part, it’s not too hot or cold. There can be some really nice warmer days and some cooler days where all you need is a cozy sweater and you are good to go. The best are crisp mornings when the air feels cool and fresh. It’s the kind of mornings where you feel like anything is possible. I loved these mornings during TIFF mostly because the cool air helped to wake me up on early mornings after late nights. Crisp mornings make me feel as if the day is laid out in front of me and whatever happened the day before is in the past. It’s like the season of perpetual new beginnings.

Time With Family

Finally, I wanted to end with my family. In Canada,Thanksgiving is in October so I feel like our holiday season begins much sooner than our neighbours to the south. This means spending more time with your family and enjoying some pretty amazing food. I know this year’s  family gatherings may be a bit different and smaller. This year we will be doing more digital family gatherings. That means having dinner at the same time and having a video chat while we eat and maybe have a viewing party of a movie. It will be different but fun.

It has been a crazy, tough,and upside down year. It is important to sit back and reflect on what we have, especially when times are difficult or we are struggling to get by, be it mentally, financially, or even spiritually. It’s good to take stock and observe what brings you joy. It is these things that will get you through.