Leaf-Jumping

The first snow of the year happened this past Monday.  It happened the week after beautiful 70 degree weather, so we were caught a little bit off guard, but it was kind of exciting.  The holidays are approaching fast, our Christmas shopping is almost done, and Clay's been jammin' to Christmas music on the way to and from work every day.  As Aimee sang the good morning song to Luke and Audrey while opening the curtains on Monday, Luke squealed with delight at the big white flakes floating outside his window and raced to get his boots on.  "Let's build a snowman!" he said.  Once the boots were removed to make room for clothes and then put back on, he raced outside to discover that no snow was actually sticking to the ground.  Poor guy.  Aimee told him not to worry, as more snow with inevitably come.   And . . . it was just a few days until leaf collecting day!

In our neighborhood, they have set leaf-collecting days when everyone piles their leaves on the roadside the night before.  Neat little machines come and "sweep" up the piles the next morning.  We took a walk the night before leaf-collecting day, and it had to be the highlight of the fall.  Leaf blowers and rakes were going like crazy up and down the street, and Luke called the never-ending piles of leaves on the road the "leaf snake."  Neighbors stopped their work to watch him and laugh as he dove head-first into massive piles.  It was hard to tear him away, even when it was getting pretty dark and really cold.  And, we didn't have to rake a thing.

This is the trademark Allphin focus face.  Or, maybe he's just licking the snot off his upper lip. The Halloween decorations in the background bear witness to the fact that I took no photos on actual leaf-collecting day, but you get the picture.