I love the that General Conference falls in my two favorite seasons with Spring being a favorite with all things budding and fresh, but my very most favorite season by far would just have to be Fall! Yeah for fall! I am especially excited to be here on the East coast. I've dreamt for years of coming East to see the colors in their glory changing on the trees.
When we were living in Michigan we had the most beautiful Autumn seasons. It was soo cold there. A tad too cold for our liking. I'm holding out hope that Winter here in New Jersey will be a little more mid. We are getting varied reports on how bad and or mild Winter actually is and when the snow flies etc. I guess we'll see for our selves in not too long.
I figured that in the spirit of my favorite season and all, I needed to have some sort of celebration. So Friday, September 24th the second official day of Fall we hosted us a little get together. I thought it would be a good way to get to know some people and do a fun activity. I made some cute invitations to up the festivity factor and then we had us a nifty get together.
We invited 3 families over from our ward that we enjoy, and have children our ages and stages. All in all we had 24 people over for a caramel apple dipping party. One of my best friends gave me the book "Autumn" by Susan Branch a year or two ago and I absolutely love it. It just makes you want to cozy up and do and make fun fall things every day. She is what prompted our families Halloween party last year and this years little get together. She writes that when entertaining you should ask these questions: Does it smell good? Look good? Taste good? Sound good? So I of course followed her grand advice and had citrus, cinnamon, and nutmeg simmering on the stove top, lamps lighting the way, and a little Sinatra playing in the background. I made the always tasty pumpkin spice muffins with chocolate chips to nibble on while we chatted and waited for the caramel to be ready.
We dipped the apples in caramel then had the choice to roll each in M&M's or crushed toffee or drizzled with chocolate. Can you say yum!? It was delicious. I was hoping the night would be a cool one so we could sip us some spiced cider but it was a balmy 84 degrees! I think the families enjoyed themselves and we had a good time. Although by the end of the night I realized I had broken the number one rule in entertaining. I choose a "food" that can't be prepared ahead of time. So, basically that meant that the couples all enjoyed each others company while Randall and I basically stood in the kitchen the whole time stirring and testing preparing etc. By the end of the night everyone left with smiles on their faces and bags in hand containing their beautiful, tasty apple and I basically waved a hello and good-bye. Lesson learned. Next time, do something easy that requires little or no prep work once guests arrive. If at first you don't succeed, try try again...
what a fun idea!!! I am sad you didn't to get socialize as much as you would have liked but I am sure everyone had a wonderful time.
ReplyDeleteFact: it's way more autumn in Connecticut. We were up in Westport yesterday and they've already got mostly yellow leaves and are moving on to the reds. BEAUTIFUL! And a little cold.
ReplyDeleteFact: "We invited 3 families over from our ward that we enjoy." Such a great line. I actually laughed out loud, not just typed some weird initials of it.
And final fact: thanks for adding me as I clearly can't remember to write you. I've been spending all free time getting my book ready to present instead of thinking. It clearly shows.
What I wanted to tell you about was Hemlock Falls. It's a really easy hike (both of my boys did it on their own) through some beautiful trees to a waterfall. It's small, but still pretty. The entrance is on South Orange Ave, but someone in your ward may know a better one that comes from the other side.
Sounds like a real hum-dinger of a Fall Party. Nice going "Martha!" Proud of you embracing your surroundings.
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