How to Celebrate...October!
How to Celebrate … October!
“Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.”
October is the month of pumpkins ripe on the vine … cool, crisp mornings … and gulps of long-awaited for apple cider.
As we say good-bye to September, we say hello to perhaps the most glorious and magnificent month of the year. It is the moment in the calendar year when the trees shed their greenery for unmatched grandeur and reveal the beauty that can always be found in transition.
Over the years, I have celebrated the month of October with an enthusiastic welcome to the geese flying overhead, the frost on the morning grass and the large, orange moon hanging in the autumn darkness.
Would you help me set out the welcome mat to the month of October? Would you join me in this annual celebration of the tenth month of the year and all the splendor that it ushers in?
There is nothing like a fall scavenger hunt to remind us that although we serve a God who never changes that He delights in change! Perhaps on your list of items to find could be:
Pinecone
Bug
Puddle
Cloud
Cat
Twig
Bird
Ever green tree
Red Leaf
Yellow Leaf
Brown Leaf
Pumpkin
Spider Web
Acorn
After a family walk, where everyone gathers these signs of nature, you can then congregate around the kitchen table for a family craft time. After cutting the middle out of a paper plate, glue the leaves around the outside and you have created an autumn wreath.
Rather than carving pumpkins, our family simply painted them with bright colors and interesting designs.
Another fall activity was to create paintings with acorns and with apples. You can slice an apple through the middle and then dip it into paint and allow your children to make prints on a long piece of paper. The acorns also make interesting shapes when dipped into paint. This can serve as a table runner through the months of October and November.
There are other activities that are ageless and that even grandparents may want to join in such as visiting a farm, picking apples, going on a hayride, visiting a cider mill and going to a pumpkin patch.
“Autumn is the year’s last, loveliest smile.”
One of the highlights of autumn for our family was the bushel of apples that my father always delivered to our front door. We loved discovering different apple treats that we could make with apples such as apple oatmeal, baked apples, applesauce, apple cake and apple crisp. Nothing tastes like fall as much as an apple does!
What fun to have a family game of football in the front yard followed by a bonfire or hotdogs on the grill!
My family always knew that autumn had arrived when I baked my famous “Pumpkin Cookies” on a Sunday afternoon while everyone else was watching football.
Carol’s Pumpkin Cookie Recipe
1 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup canned pumpkin
2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup chopped walnuts
FROSTING:
1/4 cup butter, softened
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Add pumpkin; mix well. Combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and baking powder; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in walnuts.
Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 in. apart onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 8-10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.
In a small bowl, beat the frosting ingredients until light and fluffy. Frost cookies. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”
Now … before you say, “Bah! Humbug” or throw a rotten pinecone at me, would you allow me to explain why the celebration of Christmas should begin in October? Will you open your heart and your mind to a fresh perspective that has nothing to do with the stores that are gaudily promoting their Christmas merchandise during this luscious month?
Christmas is just too miraculous … too eternal … and too significant … to confine it to one calendar month.
I am amazed that God left eternity and entered into time because of His great love for me. I stand at the manger in humility and in gratitude that Christmas actually happened.
I wish I had been there to hear the angels sing … to see the shepherd’s dance … to ask Mary if I could hold her Baby. I wish that I could have kissed His sweet face and smelled His breath … so fresh from heaven!
The best part of Christmas to me has always been the music. I ache when I listen to the soaring melodies and the simple tunes that celebrate the intrinsic hope of this season.
I have loved the music of Christmas since I was a young and impressionable girl growing up in the snowy December days of Western New York. Even as a child, I couldn’t wait for the day after Thanksgiving when WKBW would begin to play Christmas music.
“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas … everywhere you go!”
“The first Noel … the angel did say … was to certain poor shepherd’s in fields as they lay.”
“I’m dreaming of a White Christmas … just like the ones I used to know.”
I actually was allowed to sing Christmas Carols in September and in October in preparation for the Christmas concerts at school and at church! While the football team was still sweating and the leaves were barely beginning to change, I was learning the alto line for “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire!”
While other teenagers were at home on Wednesday evenings watching the season opener of “Hawaii-5-0” with their parents, I was at church sitting in the choir loft belting out with my whole heart, ‘Oh Come to my heart, Lord Jesus, there is room in my heart for Thee.”
And, on Saturday mornings, when other high school students were sleeping late or shopping at the mall, I was at church rehearsing with the tiny members of the Cherub Choir as they belted out, “Come On Ring Those Bells! Light the Christmas Tree!” with every ounce of exuberance in their little lungs.
It only stands to reason that when I was in college, I made a life-long decision: Christmas music is too extraordinary to be enjoyed for only 5 weeks a year. I determined to extend the season of holly-jolly … joyful and triumphant … and glistening treetops for 3 glorious months.
October 1 became my first official day of Christmas music season!
I didn’t really care if no one else sang along. I would sing alone but I would sing!
“Oh, tidings of comfort and joy!”
“Let earth receive her King!”
“Sleep in heavenly peace.”
And then, I had a baby of my own. As I held my first son in my arms, I began to sing to him … and what came out of my heart?! Why … it was the melodies of Christmas, of course!
“Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay, close by me forever and love me, I pray!”
“Have yourself a merry, little Christmas!”
“When you’re worried and you can’t sleep … just count your blessings instead of sheep!”
And in that moment of new birth, with love for my son flowing down my cheeks, I realized that from this day forward, the McLeod family song will henceforth and forever be,
“I’ll be home for Christmas … you can count on me!”
When the children were still at home, we listened to the familiar lyrics at the breakfast table on the first day of the 10th month of the year.
“Please have snow and mistletoe and presents round the tree!”
And as the McLeod offspring began to leave the proverbial nest, they received a phone call at 7 a.m. every year on October 1 …
“Christmas Eve will find me, where the love light gleams!”
I longed to remind each one of my young adults of the joy that only Christmas unwraps and of the delight of celebrating with those you love the most and know the best.
I also wanted to ensure each of the 5 McLeod children that there was always a place in my heart and in my home for them no matter how old they had grown … no matter where life had taken them … and no matter how many little McLeod’s they now brought with them.
“I’ll be home for Christmas … if only in my dreams!”
I don’t know how you feel about Christmas music … or the Christmas season … or about how early the celebration should begin in your home … but let me remind you that something so extraordinary and miraculous happened at Christmas that nothing … absolutely nothing … about life this side of eternity should ever be the same again.
Some things are worth celebrating for more than just a day … or more than just a month … and Christmas is one of those things!
October is the month that you can lay a foundation for a holiday season for your family that is laid upon the foundation of faith, hope and joy. If you live alone, you can allow the music of Christmas to prepare a place in your heart for your Savior King.
How wonderful to be able to create a Christmas atmosphere for those that you love that is centered on the manger … on eternity … and on the dearly loved music of Christmas. The climate of Christmas begins long before we choose to recognize it on a calendar. It is instigated by all of us who choose to sing the songs of Christmas … even in October!