The trees are turning and the air is getting crisp and morning runs have never been lovelier. Which means it's time to begin my annual tradition of Nagging Noah About Halloween.
This is a tradition that goes back to the early days of our relationship. Every year I tell him I want to dress up as Noah and Mrs. Noah and carry around stuffed animals. Possibly we could pose the animals in an inner tube, which is about as close to an ark as we're going to get. And every year Noah celebrates his own traditions, which are Getting All Snarky About Costumes and, at the last minute, Putting on a Fedora and Calling Himself Cary Grant. He looks darn good in a fedora, so I've never raised much complaint.
But for the record: once we have kids Cary Grant will be retired, at least on Halloween. Instead, we're going to throw on bathrobes or sheets or something Old Testamenty and dress the kids up as animals and put them in a wagon that we've gussied up as an ark and drag them around the neighborhood. It will be epic.
In the meantime I'm celebrating fall in all the usual ways. There's a snaggle-toothed jack-o'-lantern sitting on our doorstep and beginning to rot--no way that thing makes it to Halloween--and we've got a skillion apples waiting to be cooked into pies. I'm downing gallons of chai, but no orchard-fresh cider this year. It's bizarre--a gallon of cider costs $7.99 out here. This is, of course, highway robbery, so I'm staging a protest. I asked my mother to get a gallon and stick it in the freezer for me, so I'll have some when we go home at Christmas.
And the celebrate-fall plan for today? Pack away the summer clothes and sandals and get out the winter coats and sweaters and blankets. And figure out something to do with all my scarves. I have a lot, and I don't really need a lot--the winters here are pretty mild. Noah gives me lots of raised eyebrows over my collection. Maybe I'll pin them to a bedsheet and cut a hole for his head and call it a Coat of Many Colors. He can be Joseph this year instead of Cary Grant. It's probably best to work up to Noah and the Ark gradually.
