november, november

I can't believe it's already November. This summer seems like yesterday and a lifetime ago all at the same time! I can't complain, though, this fall has been good to us. I had a to-do list on the calendar of all the fun things I wanted to try, and we nearly crossed off every single one by the end of October! Now that it's November, I've placed a new to-do list on the fridge and after listing all the things I am hoping to fit in, I announced to Max that November has got to be one of my favorite months of the year: the occasional Christmas song on the radio, or the Hershey kisses commercial starting to play on TV (I don't know why I have always loved that commercial so much), plus pumpkin pie/chocolate chip cookies and pumpkin spiced hot chocolate -- Thanksgiving day has to be tied with Christmas Eve in my book. And this year especially, I'm really hoping to add a few new traditions to the holiday.

This weekend, though, I've really been counting down the minutes for. Max surprised me with tickets to see the Utah Symphony's performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. I might have mentioned it in a post before, but I can't think of many other songs I love as much as Vivaldi's Winter. My dad tried raising me and my little sister on classical music, which honestly, we mostly complained about at the time. My dad would take us to the store every time we wanted to buy a CD like the Backstreet Boys or B*Witched (does anybody remember them??) and would always make us pick out a Beethoven or Bach CD to go along with it. I usually just picked a name or composer I was familiar with, and only listened to it when my dad asked me to, but there were two single classical exceptions that I loved as much as anything else: Pachelbel's Cannon in D and Vivaldi's Four Seasons. It still makes me wish I was a concert violinist whenever I hear these songs, they are so, so pretty. Nowadays, I find myself listening to "Classical 89" and (sigh) talk radio more than I do other stations because everything else is starting to sound the same (and I am starting to sound way too much like my parents!) but any excuse to dress up for a night and pretend we're fancy is a-okay with me!

Anyway, this post is getting lengthy but all I really just wanted to say is that November is great as long it's not election year (lets not talk about Obamacare ever) and I hope the month is as special for you as it is to me. Now if only there was a way to keep all the red and golden leaves on the trees for just a few weeks longer?