Hospitality: Sunday Evening Bonfire

Creekside Cottage sits in a little hollow of land.  Our neighbors home is the lowest spot on our road but our place is low, too.  The neat thing about this is that we sit in the shadows of twilight long before the sun sets, and the trees around us are still lit at the tops by sunlight.  This is particularly lovely in the autumn, when the trees are lit up at the tops of them.

In the late afternoon, after eating our lunch at church and visiting for a few hours, my husband mentioned to those still there, "We have coffee and ice cream at our house."  That was all it took to get the men moving!  

I also had purchased fudge striped cookies and marshmallows for s'mores, and a quick trip to the store for hotdogs and a few gallons of lemonade and we had the makings of dinner.

 Even though it is still technically summer, the weather has turned and warm days are turning into chilly nights!  It was time for our first campfire of the season.

 Many hot dogs and s'mores were consumed.

 Pastor Mike.  His wife Jenni, is from China and she was gone giving a tour group from China a tour of Amish Country.  She is enjoying this opportunity to use the faith of the Amish to speak of her own faith in Jesus.

 See this long stick close to me?  One of Kyle's favorite things to do is to stick a long stick into the fire and pull it out with a small flame on the end.

 We invited my Mom and Dad to come join us.

Brooke and Jennifer.

 These four on the bench are Joseph's siblings, Laura, Joshua, Jane and Daniel.

 Having a campfire or bonfire is so easy, and the easiest way to feed a group of people.  You could easily heat up a stew or chili this way too!  We set up a fold up table with everything on it and people serve themselves.

We love the smell of wood smoke, and enjoy a lazy Sunday afternoon gathering.  This is just the first of many to come this season.  It is one of our favorite traditions!

Do you have late summer/autumn traditions that you love?  I'd love it if you'd share them in the comments.  I like to hear what others do - it's very inspiring!