some of my favorite things:

Brown paper packages tied up with strings!

I give up on wrapping paper... really.

I mean, why bother?

It gets ripped off and thrown away.

You can bag your groceries for free in the brown stuff,

and how cute does it look with a ribbon?

I grew up with gifts wrapped in the comics, or just plain newspaper, for that matter, and it never mattered to me--it was always about what came inside the wrapping, anyway.

And since we're on the subject of favorite things, how about this birthday mugshot:

All wrapped-up in my favorite hugging arms.

And since those hugging arms are in Alabama for a couple of days, I needed some form of substitute comfort while he's gone.  So I made two pies last night before bed.  An apple, and a pumpkin...so I could enjoy another morning favorite:  breakfast dessert.  Or, in this case, dessert for breakfast.  It was pie for everyone!  With a cup of warm cider or hot cocoa, of course, since the frost was everywhere, and our bus stop temperature was 38 degrees!  

Mmmmm... a good, crisp, fall day today.  Another favorite.

Which, by the way, happens to be the birthday of two of my very favorite people 

(and how lucky for ME to be related to them!):

Happy Birthday Becky and Ben!

XOXO