Labor Day is a Special Day ....

I don't know if things were different when you were a kid, but when I was going to school it always started after Labor Day. For my kids it starts a month earlier and Labor Day is just a three day weekend, not the portal to another school year.

But still, there's something about the whole holiday that remains, for me at least, a bittersweet reminder that summer is coming to an end. It's the last hurrah before the leaves start to turn and the weather cools down.

Autumn is the beginning of a whirlwind of activity that keeps us going from now until the end of the year. In our family we have three birthdays in the fall, and then there's Halloween, Thanksgiving, and of course Christmas. Fall also means the first of the band concerts and football games, all those comfort foods we save for colder days like meatloaf and shepherd's pie, home baked cookies and hot chocolate, and pulling out our big cozy sweaters and sweatshirts again. I do like this time of year.

That doesn't mean it isn't hard to say goodbye to summer. The memories come with us and they're fun to revisit when it's freezing outside. Hyacinths to feed our souls....