Are you ready for some football?

Here in Minnesota our short summer led to a fall that has been cold, cloudy and rainy. We have already had snow one too many times this fall. The first time it snowed I was woken up at the butt crack of dawn by little man and little lady, saying “Merry Christmas”. He apparently thought that since it snowed, it must be Christmas and he was damn excited about it. Excited enough to wake up his little sister and convince her it was in deed Christmas. They wanted to know when we were putting up our tree. Once I brought them down to reality, that it was NOT Christmas, that there was not going to be any presents underneath a tree, they wanted to go dig out their boots, snow pants and coats and go sledding. Hello? It’s 6:30 AM.  I can be such a bummer sometimes.

Anyways, all of this lovely Minnesota weather has meant that the usual beautiful changing colors have either been absent or came and went very quickly. All of this moisture and lack of sun is not good for the farmers needing to harvest their crops either. Not to mention the moods of people missing the sun.

Fall is my favorite time of year. I love the beauty of the changing colors and the freshness that is usually in the air. I love raking leaves with the kids and jumping in the colorful leaves. This year, I couldn’t rake nor jump in the leaves and this year the leaves are mostly brown.

I love having camp fires and enjoying the coolness of the night. I love sipping on hot chocolate (and yes it tastes mighty good with a little peppermint schnapps added to it ) or hot apple cider. With all this rain and wind we haven’t gotten to enjoy very many fires but fall isn’t completely over so there still is hope.

I love wearing jeans, t-shirts and sweatshirts and flannel shirts. I love that when I’m having one of my menopausal moments I can step outside and instantly cool off.

I love orange pumpkins and cutting them out into jack-a-lanterns. I love red juicy apples and all the things we can make with them.

I love that with fall comes football…both college and professional. It used to be Friday night football games too  when my sons were playing in high school. Oh how I looked forward to standing out in the cool night watching my favorite sport.

Last Sunday after watching our Minnesota Vikings almost lose after having a big lead we headed outside to enjoy being outside even though it was cloudy and grey, at least it wasn’t raining. We threw the football around with little man and then convinced little lady to play with us.

A future football player?

“What do I do with this?”

“You have to tackle me.” “I bet you can’t catch me!”

“Do you wanna bet?”

 

I might be a girl girl.  And I might have on a dress.

But, don’t let that fool you because I’m much tougher then I look.

And I can run. Fast. And you will be lucky to catch me.

 

Look at my sister go! She scored again! (I think she gets this from me!)

I love football. I love to run with the football. But, even more, I like it when you cheer for me.

…even when my sister tackles me…

…and takes the ball from me and runs with it!

Such fun.

Maybe a football player in our future? The most important thing is teaching them to be active and to have fun being active. Not to say that I would be disappointed ‘cause that would be kinda fun and you can bet that I will be there cheering on the sidelines, gray hair and all!

We ended the fun with a few hugs and kisses…

How can we not have fun with these 2?

Life may change us, but we start and end with family.

I may not have planned to be here but I sure am glad that I am.