I love fall. I love the colors, I love the crisp air, I love the sound of crunching leaves under my high heels when I walk down the sidewalk. The yard cleanup? That is something I could do without.

Last night concluded the second leaf-clean-up session leaving us with 49 chuck-full, stomped-on, smooshed-down bags of fallen leaves. Hours and hours after raking, the pile spanned the width of our house and completely concealed my car.

Can we pause for a minute? Because there are 49 bags of leaves if front of my house.

One of the more interesting elements of this photo is the lack of bags in front of our neighbors’ houses. While this is partly because they rake a little bit each day and we do it in spurts, it is mainly because we have three of the largest trees on the street – all of which fall at different intervals throughout the season.

The saddest part of this story is that we aren’t even done. The leaves are still filling our window wells, covering our flower beds, and even more have yet to fall. On the bright side, doesn’t my iPhone take surprisingly lovely photos?

Also? I’d like a cup of hot chocolate please. Because that’s a fall tradition I’m willing to raise my glass to.

Cheers!