Autumn in Florida... Say what?

It's really beginning to look a lot like Fall around our neck of the woods. For most of the Country most, if not all of the leaves have fallen and now your yards and streets are draped with dead, crinkly, water-logged leaf beds. -That is if I remember correctly. I grew up in Massachusetts but I have been living in Florida for the past 8yrs [since I was 18]... my mind is a bit water logged.

Living in Florida this time of year is awesome. Granted I still hate Florida and anyone who says other wise has only come here for Vacation and in turn, goes back to their home within a week or two, during the Summer. Try living down here the entire Summer... and you better bet your bottom dollar that you high tail out of here on I-95 faster than the speed of light. [Yes it really is that hot, humid, sticky and wholeheartedly miserable]. -Anyways, this time of year the humidity goes away. The air becomes drier and it slowly starts to cool down. Believe it or not it DOES get cold down here [last year we saw temps. drop as low as 19 degrees at night, with a high of only 30-40 degrees during the day]. It's just enough to wear a nice sweater, a peacoat and some nice boots. A nice stroll through the park with your beau and you got a scene out of 'Autumn in New York'.

So I thought I would show you a taste of our Autumn, as it is right now.

The leaves on our Morning Glories [which draped so innocently over the backyard fence throughout the summer]. Slowly start to turn and wilt away.

The corner in our backyard seems the most 'Festive' in terms of crunchy leaves. This area is surrounded by some maples, oaks and two very large, gorgeous Douglas Fir's.

The steps to the front door display just a few scattered leaves from our nearby Dogwood tree, our pumpkins and of course Lola [there she goes with that 'Martha Stewart' photo-op again].

And in just a few short weeks time, we will be gathering around friends, family and piles of food. This year I have been brainstorming ideas as to what we will be doing. Especially since this will be our first Thanksgiving in our first home. Sadly, we don't have family very close by [Josh's family lives about 4hrs west and my family lives allllllllll the way up in Massachusetts and Washington STATE] Most of our friends go out of town to visit their families and I believe this year it will be a nice, small, quiet, Thanksgiving dinner with just the 4 of us [Lola included of course].

So what do I have up my sleeve you ask? Well... it goes along with the whole 'one of the perks of living in Florida this time of year' type deal...

Here's a hint.

Our back patio, right off the living room/kitchen.

Source

And a little bit of outdoors...

Minus the waterfall of course... although we do have a pool... does that count? [It's even green right now... totally festive... double pts. for that!].