October was...interesting. The weather was glorious, warm and inviting. I finished my job by month's end and reluctantly said goodbye to coworkers but happily said goodbye to the commute. I did a bajillion photo sessions and loved every single one.

I also developed a cough in early October (my daughter started with it a week prior). Hers eventually settled into a mild cold and then went away. Mine hung on, nagging, annoying, slowly getting worse, until suddenly at month's end I felt like I had a sinus infection and the coughing just refused to end. In November I finally went to the doctor after spending an hour and a half one morning blowing my nose and having coughing fits nonstop. Hello pneumonia. I spent a week binge-watching Forensic Files and moping on the couch. At the point of this writing (Dec 20 - I know, I'm SO behind), I still have a lingering cough. My son also spent a week feeling lousy with some version of this cold/cough, and my husband avoided it all thanks to his secret weapon - gargling with Listerine 3x/day when people around him are sick. He avoided it until this week when he felt a cold coming on, and spent about 24 hours with a sore throat and cough, and then it disappeared. Lucky duck!

All in all, October was good. We still managed another picnic on the river before a big rain took away our islands. We ate loads of apples, celebrated Thanksgiving, played with cattail fluff, saw the momentous loss of my husband's beard (it's coming back!!!), went on a haunted hike, and went out for Halloween as Indiana Jones and Kapow! Girl (and I was the Coughing Chauffeur).

I'd like to say November's wrap-up will be done this month but I can safely say I'll catch up in January. ;)

Happy Christmas and season's greetings, friends.