This is my absolute favorite time of year. The air is crisp, the trees have turned into an amazing blaze of color, my Halloween village is decorating every available flat spot in the living room, there are plenty of pumpkin-inspired goodies around (pumpkin waffles, pumpkin venison stew, pumpkin yeast rolls, pumpkin fudge...) and plenty of scary movies on TV.

And Charlie Brown.
And Hershey.

Two constants in life for me were the yearly pilgrimage to Hershey, Pennsylvania, every fall for the Antique Auto Club of America's annual fall meet and watching It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

Both events said 'It's Fall, there's magic in the air, so breath deep and enjoy every precious second.' And I still try to enjoy every precious second of the season. After a couple months sweating and struggling to breath air that's composed of more water than oxygen and filled with bugs that swarm my eyes, ears and nose I can finally be outside again. Weeding the gardens and prepping them for winter, playing with the dogs, working on any outdoor craft projects like sanding or painting, hiking, sitting outside to play my guitar in the evenings by the barbecue pit fire - it's all fun.

Another, less attractive, more slight-of-hand magical constant was my oh-so-innocent father having his own fun by slipping a rock or an onion in my trick-or-treat bag every year.

Every year I swore I would catch the mean-spirited Halloween Grinch and every year Dad-the-Magician managed to slip it in there past my vigilant eye. He was always in such a good mood during October - it took me all these years to finally find out why!

Part of my love for fall probably has a lot to do with the antique car shows - and what's NOT to love about Hershey? Dad loved them so much it was contagious. Over the years I have learned a lot about antique automobiles, their construction, their simple metal engines with nary a computer chip in sight, their individual beauty, that the back seat of a 1919 Dodge is perfect for nap-taking.

The same lines and curves found in Art Deco architecture can also be found in a classic car - guaranteed to have me doing that horror-movie-bordering 180 degree head swivel when one drives past me. There is just as much impeccable craftsmanship that goes into the restoration of an antique car as there is in the creation of a dollhouse.

The same things that inspire my passion for dollhouses - visual interest, texture, intricacy - inspire Dad when he looks at a car. I hadn't known he ever even considered fabric differences until I heard him debating the merits of upholstery types.

Granted, some of his car talk gets the same eye roll from me that I get from him when explaining why I had to have the rocks from his driveway edging for the fireplaces on my still-under-construction Halloweentown House. Although his eye roll is sometimes accompanied by the threat to ban me from the garage if I keep pilfering things.

I could remind him that he used to GIVE me rocks...

May your Halloween be just as memorable as you wish it could be!

The Miniature Way Editor