This Time of Year

Fall is my favorite season. I love everything about it. Jeans, sweatshirts, rain, leaves everywhere, soccer games, football games, hot chocolate, pumpkins, apple cider, trips to the orchard, the spicy smell of leaves, sitting by a camp fire, deer hunting...the list just goes on and on! Many of my sweetest memories are of things that took place in the fall. One of those wonderful things is our time in the deer woods. Gram and Gramps always go Up North to hunt; they take their trailer and park it for the duration of hunting season. I have the best memories of camp fires, tracking deer, sitting in the blind with Gramps, long walks, trips into town to visit V&S Variety Store, and playing cards late at night by the light of a lantern. Oh, so dear to my heart were those times! Since I graduated from high school (6 years ago, aahh!) I have not spent even half the time in the deer woods as I used to. But this past weekend I went up with some other family members and spent a few hours sitting by the fire, walking in the woods, and visiting with my loved ones. I wanted to stay forever; to never return to reality. If only... Sometimes the memories make me so sad with longing for "the good ol' days", but I am glad to have those times to look back on. They mostly make me smile and praise God for the life He has given me and my family.