It's the Hap-Happiest Season Of All

Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, but really, I get most excited about the autumn. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I loathe summer and I love winter, so the fall is the sign that I made it through yet another year of stifling heat and bad, big budget movies and that the cold, invigorating winter weather is close at hand. Seeing the pumpkins and the Halloween candy at the grocery store is the sure sign that fall is finally here, and takes me back to the autumns I lived in New Hampshire and Vermont where they know how to do fall right. One of my favorite memories from autumn in New England was when I was living near Hanover, New Hampshire and I was at Dartmouth College on the Saturday of the big game against Yale. The weather was sunny and crisp, the air smelled like the fresh pressed apple cider sold at farm carts along Main Street, and all the Ivy League students were wearing their school scarves and heading off to the big game. There's nothing like it here in the West, but the pumpkins and the candy are enough for me.