Aspirational Fall

Remember all that idyllic apple harvesting we did a few weeks ago?  Golden leaves were falling from the sky, just a hint of crispness tinged the air, and I had visions of all kinds of fall activities unfolding ahead of us.  Instead, the month of October has screamed by at lightening speed, and those apples froze on our porch during an unexpected hard frost and were rendered useless.  Suddenly we're talking about plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas and all things 2010.  This got me thinking of all the things I would love to do before autumn is gone.  Namely:
1) Jar something fall-ish.  Pumpkin butter, apple butter or applesauce.  I may have already missed the boat on this one, but last year I made the most amazing pumkin butter and we enjoyed it for months swirled into plain yogurt or spread on buttered toast. Delish.
2) Get caught up on Baby J's baby book.  It is currently gathering dust.  Bad Mom.  And I realize that this isn't particularly fall-ish, just overdue.  And actually a perfect activity for colder winter days.  Problem solved!  Love that.
3) Have everyone bathed, clothed attractively and in a smiling mood simultaneously with a third party around, in order to have a short but successful photo shoot and procure an adorable family photo for a lovely homemade holiday card to be sent out before or during the actual (2009) holiday season.
4) Do a few really Vermont-y things... like head over to Waterbury and go to the Cold Hollow Cider Mill, do a little hiking in the mountains, and cruise by the Red Hen Bakery for goodies on the way home.  I was thinking that I'd also love to hit up the Shelburne Orchards Annual Pie Fest, but what do you know, I just checked, and it was already a month ago.  Where is time going?!  Seriously!
5) Carve our pumpkins and roast some pepitas.  At this rate we'll be making our jack-o-lanterns on Halloween morning, which has already been reserved for frantically buying enough candy to serve our expected several hundred trick-or-treaters (apparently, this neighborhood is the place to be on 10/31).  Must get to carving...
What do you hope to do before the snow comes?