if I pretend summer is ending... will it?

I like to look at weather.com - okay, fine... I have a slight obsession with it. Its true. 
I hate being surprised when it comes to weather. I like laying our clothes out the night before and I like to go to bed feeling as prepared for the next day as possible. I think doing things like that relax my brain for a good night's sleep. Who knows. 
So tonight, as all other nights, I peeked at the weather for the next 10 days. We're expecting warm weather for the next 2-3 days and then boom... rain. I am incredibly excited. Washington after a couple days of rain is just breathtaking. Everything looks so luscious and dewy and GREEN. And I'm a huge fan of green nature. 

I'll also confess here that I am a huge fan of fall & winter weather. 

I don't like that it seems to bring a lot of sickness with it, but its still my favorite time of year. Even when we lived in California, I would get all excited at the first glimpses of cooler, fall weather and go to the garage, pulling out all the clothes for the next season. The nice thing about living here is that you can sometimes wear the wintery stuff IN the summer. Its been hard to get used to, but I'm adjusting quickly and happily. We had to learn to dress in layers, but as long as we always keep sweat shirts in the van for every family member, all year round, we're good. 

Aside from the glorious weather that fall/winter bring, I'm a big fan of the seasonal festivities. I like lighting candles all around the house, buying new rugs to put in the place where the old rugs have been worn through, from wet shoes scrubbing against them as we enter the house. I adore Christmas music {but I'm not crazy enough to listen to it all year long. It has to be at least November before you'll hear it in our home/car}, I love the food! I love baking the scrumptious tasting 'holiday' foods. I get all excited when the Starbucks barista tells me their Pumpkin Spice Latte is out {yes, I did cheer when she told me last week} and I love how all the leaves turn from green to all these amazing different shades of red, orange and brown. The super cool thing is, we're coming up on our 1 year anniversary of moving to the Pacific Northwest and so I'm getting really excited, because I remember how amazing Fall is here. By the way, I have to say I can't believe we're at the 11 month mark of living here. Its gone by in one fantastic blur. 

I've been collecting new recipes I want to try this winter. I'm already working on my Thanksgiving Day menu. Call me crazy, but I'm not a chef {by any stretch of the word} and so I have to give this stuff lots of thought and preparation or my family would wish they were invited somewhere else for the holidays. I'm sure you all remember from previous posts in previous years, but we are not a fan of turkey on Thanksgiving. I know its tradition and some gasp when they hear we don't like to eat it, but we don't, so we don't. So I have the freedom to get pretty creative with what I put on the menu! 

And then comes all the baking of treats. I know I'm going to get carried away with this one. It will be the first year, in a long time, that our budget allows for lots of cooking/baking, for fun. I plan on enjoying every minute of it. In keeping with baking traditional treats my Mom always baked, I'm going to add some new ones as well. I saw a frosting recipe on a website tonight and I fell in love with it, just reading the ingredients. I have a feeling my tummy with thank her for posting it, but my hips will not. 

At any rate, I'm getting excited for summer to end and fall/winter to begin, though I'm doing my best to enjoy each season. 

What are some of your favorite things about the seasons? What's your favorite season? I always love hearing how people like different seasons for different reasons. I'm going to end there, because I think its so cool that it rhymed without me even trying.