It must be officially fall. The weather has turned cooler and the leaves are starting to change in color. Since pumpkin spice has become all the rave right now, it would only be appropriate to include it in our list of fall favorites.

I think more people like the smell of pumpkin spice than people who like the flavor, but the smell of fall can make the season that much more special.

It’s time for hay rides and candy covered apples, hikes in the woods and bon fires at night.

If you can’t tell, fall is my favorite time of year. It’s not just the smells that make it a special time; the tastes of fall bring most people to love it.

There is kettle corn and fall festival foods, caramel apples, chili cook-offs and toasted marshmallows for

s’mores. The taste of fall is enough to make a skinny girl want to eat.

With the weather changing and the leaves turning to red, yellow and

orange, it seems to be the perfect time to get out of the house and be active for a few weeks.

When the heat of summer gets to us, most people will go inside and hibernate with the air conditioning and fans. A girl covered in sweat is never a pretty sight. If you’ve found yourself closed up in the air-conditioned house or office, then this is the perfect time to stick your head out the door and take in a deep breath of fall. Yep, time to step outside, put on your tennis shoes and go for a walk.

This past weekend my  husband and I ran away together to the hills of Mentone. That just happens to be the place we were married and one of our all time favorite get-away spots.

While driving up the mountainous roads, the cool nip of the outside wind was enough to make this girl plain happy.

We went for a hike through the woods and at times it was almost cool when we were close to the edges of the rocks.

It obviously wasn’t cool enough, since we saw a black snake sliding his way around the path. I am of the opinion that the only good snake is a dead snake. But other than the snake, the weather was perfect for a hike.

This is the time of year that schools and churches start having fall festivals, which is a great excuse to get the family out the door and doing something fun together.

Even if you are a Scrooge of fall, you can’t deny that seeing a child smile while taking a hay ride or seeing their face covered in goo from a carmel apple is a fun thing to do.

Fall has so many positives that it’s hard to find a negative in this time of year. The weather is perfect. The sun is still shining. The early nights make me feel as though I have a night life even if I get home by 7 p.m. every night. Fall is fantastic.

But there is a down side of fall…. football. What? That’s right, sometimes football can be a downside of fall. Not because it is bad by any means, but because it can sometimes keep us from doing more productive and important things.

Just think of the dads, and moms, who sit around all day, every Saturday and Sunday doing nothing more than watching football. Does that sound crazy to you? Well, it is a lot of people’s lifestyle. It is one thing to have a team that you really love and you work your schedule around getting to see them play once a week. That seems completely suitable. But there are people who watch every football game that is played, college or professional, and never truly live their own lives on the weekends of football season.

They miss out on their wives or husbands, kids, friends… all of the real things that make life worth the living.

Now I’m all for a good football party at the house. Almost every weekend we have a group of family and friends who come over to watch the Alabama and Auburn games, but we make an event out of it. There are kids running around and playing, there is plenty of food and the laughter and teasing don’t stop even when the last play is ran. It’s more about the fellowship than it is about the game. The room only gets silent when the game is close, and even the trash talk stops to see what is happening on the screen. These moments are few and far between around our house.

You see, we would rather be enjoying life, instead of living our lives through other people… even if those other people are college athletes. So feel free to watch your team play their game this Saturday, I’d encourage it, but after the game, turn off the television and go spend some quality time with the ones who really make your life worth living.

Take your wife for a walk, toss the football in the yard with your son, have an outdoor tea party with your daughter. Live your life. It’s fall, it’s the best time of the year to get out of the house and enjoy the nature around you. You might even want to grab a pumpkin spice latta when you head out the door just to fit in with the neighbors.