What Is Your Favorite?

I LOVE this time of year! The leaves are falling in our yard, the weather although still very warm has gone from the high 90's to the high 80's. The kids are back in school starting a fresh new year and the holidays are just around the corner. I LOVE planning for all of the upcoming holidays. When I was a little girl, fall was always my favorite time of year. I am not sure why fall but I think it had everything to do with family. I'm one of six children, I have two amazing sisters and three of the best brothers a girl could ask for. I can remember at Halloween my Mom would always help us create some costume from items we had at home and my oldest brother would take us younger three outside and "teach" us how to trick or treat. He would stand in the house and make me knock (since I was the oldest of the younger three) then he would open the door (that is if I knocked hard enough to meet his standards) and we would all say "trick or treat!" Of course, it was never good enough the first 10 times so we had to keep trying and "learning" how to do it correct! After all we were the Preacher's kids and we needed to know how to beg! LOL! Next, it was Thanksgiving, I don't know why but Thanksgiving as a kid seemed to consume the whole week and cooking Thanksgiving dinner, well that took the entire day and seemed to taste like what a meal in heaven must taste like. We did not have a TV, but during the holidays if there was not much money we would all work small jobs, then we would pile our money together and rent a TV. I can remember what a special time that was having everyone in the living room watching the old Christmas programs and my brothers and Dad watching football. Then came Christmas, oh, how I love everything to do with Christmas. Each year we would get the Sears catalog and my Mom would let us circle items we wanted. If we really wanted something we would circle it a bunch of times. We never got items from that catalog, but it was so much fun dreaming. I can remember my Mom cooking for weeks making treats and candy and planning for a special day. It was always special, even when we were not sure if there were going to be any gifts under the tree, Mom and Dad always figured out a way to get us each something. I can never remember having a disappointing Christmas. I can remember one Christmas hearing my mom in her sewing room working late into the night making us dolls and stuffed animals to sell to raise money. My oldest sister had a huge part in making Christmas special and still does to this day. When I was little we lived in a small town that had a small store, I can remember her taking us younger three to the store to get gifts for each other. You know, as a child, you don't put much value into where the $2 came from, but as I look back now I know she must have worked hard babysitting to give each of us $2 so we could buy gifts for our family. Its only now that I am older that my parents have let out little bits of how they struggled to provide for six kids on a Pastors salary. Mom said often they would not have any gifts until someone would give them a love offering or the church would give them a love offering. Mom said she would go out the next day and try to stretch the money for all of us. The budget was often $25 per child but Mom & Dad always made it feel like so much more. We opened our gifts one at a time and the gift giving often lasted an hour or two. I guess that's why fall is my favorite time of year. Now that I have a family of my own, I enjoy the holidays as much as I did as a child and we are now passing on traditions to our boys and I just bet, one day they will ponder why fall is their favorite time of year too. What is your favorite time of year?