My mom was always a fan of fall. As soon as the air began to get crisp, she was at her happiest. As a child, I couldn’t understand that – all I could think was that winter was coming and that I hated snow. For most of my younger years, my favorite season was spring. I loved spring for a variety of reasons, but the top two were that my birthday is in May, and spring signaled the coming end of the school year.Years later, as an adult with small children of my own, spring held the same appeal for me. I loved seeing the school year draw to a close, because it meant more time with my kids, long summer days outdoors, ice cream cones, the beach, and all those wonderful things that came with the warm weather.Except for one problem... I really, truly HATE to be hot. My husband jokes that I have a two degree temperature comfort level, and frankly, he’s not wrong. Temperature extremes aren’t for me. In summertime, I’m always too hot. In winter, I’m frozen. When my kids were growing up, I tolerated the heat of summer because the trade-off of extra time together was worth it.I began to anticipate fall much the way I anticipated spring as a child. One of my kids was born in mid-October, and as she grew up, she became an avid fan of Halloween, which brought a new sense of fun to fall. During my kids’ high school years, autumn brought the promise of marching band season, and the fun of attending a “marching band game” where a little football would occasionally break out. I relished the cool evening games, where I could wrap up in a cozy coat and cheer like a lunatic.These days, I can’t wait for the weather to start to turn cool, for the leaves to begin to color, and for that unmistakable smell of autumn to hit the air. My husband and I have a house in Vermont, and believe me when I say that I can’t imagine a more beautiful place to spend autumn. The landscape is just breathtaking, and the mornings start out frigid, warming slowly under the fall sun.So I think you can understand that very, very little would draw me to the sweltering state of Florida during my favorite autumn months, other than perhaps a brief jaunt to Disney.
