Well, we are full-swing into the holiday season now, so I suppose it’s time to say goodbye to my favorite season.  (Although there are still some orange and yellow leaves on the trees around here, and apple cider will be in the grocery stores all winter, so I can have a little bit more fall – right?)  We always try to make the most of the season, and I think we did a pretty good job of that this year.  There are some activities that have become fall “musts” for us – apple-picking, for one, and visits to the pumpkin patch – but we also leave ourselves plenty of room for new experiences.

• The big one: give a heartfelt Maid of Honor toast at Rebecca’s wedding (while wrangling my little flower girl) in Florida and then dance the night away.  Done!  Well, not the part about the toast – it was a really relaxed wedding and I didn’t end up needing to do that, which was kind of a relief.  It was such a joy to be Rebecca’s MOH, and words can’t convey how much I appreciated her including Peanut in the wedding, too.  Rebecca really loves her “niecelette” and it shows.  Peanut was over the moon at getting not only to see her auntie as a bride, but getting to be a part of her special day!  All the feelings.

• The other big one: spend a weekend in New York City and see Hamilton on Broadway!  Done – yay!  This was such an awesome trip.  Steve and I snuck off for just twenty-four hours, stayed in the Library Hotel (I’ve been wanting to stay there for years) and had a fabulous night out at Hamilton, which was an incredible show.

• Take the kids apple and pumpkin-picking.  Done!  We went apple-picking back in September and managed to hit the orchard during prime apple season – imagine that!  No baked goods resulting, but we ate our apples out of hand for weeks afterwards and they were delicious.  And we had fun checking out a new-to-us farm for pumpkin picking on Halloween weekend, and came home with a trunk full of gorgeous gourds.

• Read lots of books from diverse voices.  Done!  I can always improve on this, but I made a point of focusing on diverse books this season, and read over 50% books by writers of color in November.

• Walk to the farmers’ market and do some seasonal baking with Peanut.  Done!  We took plenty of strolls to the farmers’ market, and I’m going to count our fun in the kitchen on Thanksgiving as seasonal baking.  (Hey, stuffing is baked.)

• Run the Dulles Day on the Runway 5K and the Marine Corps Marathon 10K.  Done!  It felt so good to get back in my running shoes.  I pushed the stroller for 3.1 miles at the Dulles Day on the Runway 5K – my first stroller race, although I’ve done lots of stroller running – and had a wonderful time running through the streets of D.C. at the MCM10K.  I even squeezed in one more race – a five mile turkey trot through the neighborhood next door to mine on Thanksgiving morning.
• Spend some time in Fairacre.
• Help my bestie  MOVE TO D.C.  I’m going to say this is in progress and done-ish.  Rebecca’s job start date was postponed, but she’ll be moving here shortly after New Year’s and starting in early January.  I’m already helping, though.  I’ve provided input on neighborhoods, apartment buildings, and commuting routes, and can’t wait to dig in and help her actually unpack and set up house!  She won’t be living walking distance from me as we’d hoped, but she found a nice apartment in one of my old neighborhoods, and we’ll be a heck of a lot closer than when she lived in Virginia Beach and Africa!

• Take the kids to a children’s Halloween party.  Done!  I probably won’t have this on the list next year.  Peanut and her BFF, S, who has attended the party with us for the past two years, seem to be growing out of it.  (Nugget is still the right age but he was in a MOOD this year, which made it tough on everyone.)  It’s a great event for the little ones, and we’re glad that we got to go two years in a row!
• Finally start cleaning out and organizing the basement.

• Take a weekend trip to Shenandoah National Park and help the kids earn Junior Ranger badges.  Hmmmmm – half done.  We did go to Shenandoah National Park over Thanksgiving weekend, and climbed Stony Man Mountain, which was gorgeous.  But Shenandoah’s Junior Ranger program starts at age 7, so clearly that wasn’t going to happen.  (It’s hard enough to convince Peanut to go along with age-appropriate activities.  You should have heard the caterwauling before she finally caved at Joshua Tree.)  This winter, we’ll do the program at Great Falls instead.
• Get an early start on my 2017 family yearbook (instead of waiting until January this year!).  Done – only because I said a start.  I have most of the pictures I’ve taken in 2017 uploaded onto Shutterfly, but the yearbook itself is in a rough shape.  Plenty of time to work on it over cold winter evenings to come.  Uploading the pictures is the biggest pain.
• Play at Badlands on a bad-weather day.

Yay, fall!  I think I did a surprising amount this season – well, maybe not surprising, because I always pack a lot of activity into fall; it is my favorite season, after all.  The highlight, of course, came right at the beginning – Rebecca’s wedding!  We all had so much fun traveling together to Florida and it meant so much to us to share in her special day – especially for Peanut.  Peanut loves weddings and brides, and it was clear that she felt so special and so loved by her Aunt Rebecca, who so obviously cherishes her.  Rebecca already had a special place in my heart, but “make my girl happy” is a surefire way to ensure that I’ll love you forever.  Anyway, enough gushing over my fabulous and kind BFF.  The other highlight of the season was finally seeing Hamilton on Broadway after listening to the soundtrack on almost a daily basis for the past two years.  Seeing the show performed live was everything I hoped for – and more.  The rest of the season was great, too!  We squeezed in our must-dos – apple- and pumpkin-picking, the children’s Halloween party at Lee-Fendall House, trick-or-treating in Old Town.  And we enjoyed some new experiences, too – trick-or-treating at Mount Vernon, the Alexandria Turkey Trot, and sharing Shenandoah with my parents.  I’m never ready to say goodbye to fall, but I can feel peaceful about it if I’ve done the season justice, and I think that this year, I definitely did.

What was on your fall agenda?  Did you get it all done?