Apples! Fall! Comfort!

So today was a day off...sort of. I had to re-arrange a little and massage someone this a.m. Then a friend needed some help and she stopped by. Then I was supposed to wake Mal up and head to the grocery store, but....it was cold and raining and she was asleep and I just plain didn't want to go, so..we didn't - not yet anyway. So instead, my house smells wonderful with the distinct aroma of frying apples. We LOVE fried apples! It takes some effort - peeling, coring, slicing, frying - and alot of apples cook down to not a whole lot of finished product, but oh, are they good! My friends and I are having a get together for dinner tonight, and I'm taking the apples - hopefully no one will stop by and eat them first (which sometimes happens at my casa). I can always make more - that's my theory. Anyway, frying apples is not only fun because we love the taste of them so much, but also because the smell automatically translates me back in my mind to when my grandma was alive - she showed me how to fry apples - we ate them at her house alot. There was just alot of peace and comfort in grandma's kitchen - fried potatoes, fried chicken, fried apples...uh-oh... perhaps a "fried" theme is emerging here! No matter what, grandma always had a kitchen full of fried something to make everything better. There is something so comforting and inviting to me about the fall..we break out the sweatshirts, the blankets, the shoes with toes closed (someday I'm hoping!) - we're all enclosed so to speak in our extra clothes, our homes, our blankets. Maybe there is something to being wrapped up in our blankets or our sweatshirts or the arms of our loved ones...maybe that's part of why fall makes me feel so good - we're all snuggled up, safe and warm inside. Maybe we should each give someone a nice hug today - enclose them in our love - just for a brief second - and celebrate that feeling of being warm and safe.