Top Ten… Songs of 2025

*This post contains affiliate links.  As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Hey, y’all!  Happy Monday!  It’s time to do another Top Ten post since it’s been a while!  I wanted to do this post in January when I did all my end-of-year wrap-ups, but as always, life got in the way, and I kept bumping it for other content. 

If you’ve been reading for any amount of time, then you know how strong my love for music is.  Me and music?  We are two peas in a pod.  We are BFFs.  We cannot get enough of each other.  (Well, I don’t know if music can get enough of me, but I sure can’t get enough of it.  Hehe.) 

I listen to music often, like, pretty much all day every day while the kids are at school, in the car, while I cook, when I walk, and so many other times.  I pretty much always have it on in the background, and my likes are extremely eclectic.  If you were to shuffle all of the songs in my library right now, it would be perfectly normal to hear August by Taylor Swift followed by Body by LSG followed by What Might’ve Been by Little Texas followed by Say Goodbye by Dave Matthews Band followed by Peaches and Cream by 112 followed by It Had to be You by Rod Stewart followed by Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin followed by Make You Love Me by Bonnie Raitt followed by Drowning by Backstreet Boys followed by The Next Episode by Dr. Dre followed by Your Way’s Better by Forrest Frank followed by Let Her Go by Passenger followed by Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy followed by Break Stuff by Limp Bizkit (yes, I love that song, and no I am not kidding). 

Anyway, you get the gist.  Haha.

Today, I’m sharing my favorite songs from 2025, and please note that while the albums were released in 2025, the individual songs may not have been released as singles that you’d hear on the radio.

 

Working backwards from #10, here we go!

10.  Luther by Kendrick Lamar and SZA – I loveeee the original song If This World Were Mine by Luther Vandross that Kendrick Lamar sampled for this song, so this song was love at first listen.  This one is one of my favorites to belt out in the car… I love to sing SZA’s part.  Haha.

 

9.  Man I Need by Olivia Dean – Olivia Dean is one of my favorite new artists, and she absolutely nailed it with this song.  I think I’ve heard it on the radio 84,242,422 million times and I’m still not tired of it.  Every single time it comes on, I crank it up and sing along.  Olivia loves it, too.  It is just so catchy!

 

8.  Survive by Lewis Capaldi – I think Lewis Capaldi is so underrated, and I cannot for the life of me understand why his music isn’t more mainstream here in the United States.  I love every single song he releases, and his voice is just incredible.  He released at least three songs that I loved last year, and I waffled back-and-forth forever before finally settling on Survive as his best one for the year.  Almost came in a very close second, and Something in the Heavens came in a very close third.

 

7.  Where is My Husband by Raye – Oh my gosh, this song is SO much fun, and it gives me a burst of energy every single time I hear it.  The first time I heard it, I honestly thought it was so weird, but it grew on me very quickly, and it ended up being one of my favorites from 2025.  It’s so theatrical!!  Olivia and I LOVE to sing this one (well, the chorus at least) at the top of our lungs on repeat!  It’s so good.  And one of these days I’m going to try to learn the lyrics to the verses… I cannot believe how fast she sings!! 

 

6. Can’t Steal My Joy by Josiah Queen Featuring Brandon Lake – This one was released at the very beginning of 2025, and it was perfect timing for me because we were going through some tough stuff for the first few months last year.  We had to say goodbye to our sweet little Maui at the end of February, and this song will always remind me of losing her, but it will also always remind me of keeping the faith even in the hard times.  “Sorrow may come, but it can’t steal my joy.”  Gosh, just typing that is making me tear up.  I miss Maui so much.  I loved this song so much that I used it in our One Second a Day video for 2025 and it’s one of my favorites that we’ve done so far.  And no, I don’t share those videos here on the blog or on social media.  Some things I like to keep private, and those are just for us.  <3

 

5.  Camera by Ed Sheeran – I’ve listened to and loved Ed Sheeran since his first album, back when nobody knew who he was.  He has been one of my favorite artists since then, and Brian and I have seen him live three times with another concert coming up later this year.  ;o)  It was hard to pick just one song from his album Play that was released last year because the extended version has 30 songs, many of which are excellent.  I ended up choosing Camera, because I love the juxtaposition between the lyrics in this song and his old song Photograph.  Photograph was one of my favorite songs he ever released, and in the song, the lyrics discuss preserving memories of a great love in a photograph so you can keep it in your pocket and take it everywhere with you, whereas in Camera he sings about how he doesn’t need a camera to capture the moment because he’ll remember how she looks for all his life.  The lyrics are just beautiful, y’all, and it’s his lyrics that always keep me coming back for more.  It was really hard choosing just one, though, because In Other Words, Slowly, For Always, Skeletons, Technicolour, Lights Out, Fade Out, and Spiral are all fantastic, too.

 

4.  Hurricane by Zach Paradis – I’m willing to bet that none of you have ever heard of Zach Paradis (other than those of you who have heard me talk about him here on the blog and Instagram), but I had the pleasure of seeing him live last year before I knew who he was, and he quickly became one of my favorite artists.  Yep, we saw him as an opener for Abe Parker, and I enjoyed his performance so much that I immediately went home and downloaded every single one of his songs.  I have loved him ever since, and I was thrilled when he released a couple of new songs last year.  Hurricane was my favorite of his 2025 releases… his voice, his guitar playing, and his lyrics are all beautiful, and he has a stripped-down version that’s amazing.

 

3. Northern Lights by Teddy Swims – Brian and I saw Teddy Swims twice in concert last year, and he puts on a great show.  His voice is just insane – dude can SANG – so when he released a whole new album last year, I was ecstatic.  Friends, when I tell you it was hard to pick just one song from this album, I am so serious.  Every single song on the entire album is GOLD.  Northern Lights, though… there’s just something about it that gets me every single time. 

 

2.  Take All Day by Dave Matthews – This song wasn’t technically released on an album or even as a single, and I believe that Dave has only performed it four times (and not at the show we went to, unfortunately), but it did make its debut to the public in 2025 and this is my blog AKA I make the rules, so I’m going to just go ahead and say this one counts as a 2025 release.  ;o)  That said, this one is sliding into my number two slot for the year.  This song is so beautiful and it’s reminiscent of Dave Matthews Band’s earliest work from when I first fell in love with them.  It actually reminds me a bit of their song I’ll Back You Up from their first album, and that’s one of my favorite songs from their entire discography, so of course I love this one.  I will love David John Matthews until the day that I die.

 

1.  Opalite by Taylor Swift – And the top spot goes to Taylor for the second year in a row!  She released The Life of a Showgirl in 2025, and while it’s not my all-time favorite album from her, it is 12 songs of absolute bangers, and I love the entire thing from start to finish.  I love that she released a more upbeat album for the first time in a long time, and again, it was hard to pick just one song from the album.  In the beginning, my favorite song on the album was Eldest Daughter (because I relate soooo much), but after listening over and over again, I had to pick Opalite for my favorite song from the album to represent my 2025 countdown.  (And yes, I know I could have more than one song from the same artist in my countdown, but if I allowed that, this list would be quite repetitive.)  Opalite is a song full of hope, it’s SO much fun, it’s boppy, and it just makes you feel good.  So good that I decided to make it my word for 2026 as most of you already know! 

 

And now that we’re done with the main countdown, I thought it would be fun to list a few honorable mentions…

Ordinary by Alex Warren

Revolving Door by Tate McRae

Daisies by Justin Bieber

Back to Friends by Sombr

And then, here are some new-to-me songs that I discovered in 2025 even though they were released in years prior…

Waiting Here for You by Zach Paradis (2022 – I have listened to this song 43 times since I found him back in May last year.  It’s my favorite song by him and it. is. so. good.)

Lovely by Billie Eilish & Khalid (2018 – don’t know how I missed this one, but it’s fantastic!)

This is What Autumn Feels Like by JVKE (2023)

Come to an End by Nik Ammar (2024)

What are some of your favorites from 2025??

And if you want to see any of my other Top Ten posts I'll link them below!

Top Ten... Favorite Scents

Top Ten... Favorite Shows

Top Ten... Things I Love About Fall

Top Ten... Songs of 2024

Top Ten... Things I Love About Fall (2025 Version)

Happy Wednesday, y’all!

Top Ten… Things I Love About Fall (2025 Version)

*This post contains affiliate links.  As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

I told y’all last week that my fall home tour post would be up today, but sadly, we had a ton of rain come in and I wasn’t able to get good photographs of the house Thursday or Friday since it was so dark.  The post should hopefully be up Wednesday, so be sure to come back then if you’re looking for it.

Instead, today I’m going to bring y’all another post in my Top Ten series.  I had hoped to do several of these this year, but I’m pretty sure this is only the second one.  Whoops!  Since fall is officially here, I decided to share my favorite things about fall, and I wrote the entire post before realizing that… I literally did a top ten favorite things about fall post last year.  Hahahaha.  Since this post was mostly done when I discovered I’d already written about this subject, I just decided to roll with it, and we’re just going to call this one the version updated for 2025.  You can see my original post from 2024 here if you want to compare the two and see how my responses changed.  It’s funny how little they changed, though!

Working backwards from #10, let’s goooo!

 

10.  The Time Change – I’m going to start with the most controversial of them all… one of the things I look forward to the most in the fall is returning to standard time!  I know so many people hate standard time (I mean, it is the actual real time, though), and you much prefer daylight saving time when we get more sunlight at the end of the day, but I am one of those who looooves falling back in November.  I love when it gets dark earlier during the fall and winter because it makes the evenings so cozy.  The twinkle lights, candles, and fires in the fireplace have more opportunity to shine, dinner is cozier, and time seems to slow down a bit.  When the sun sets later, I always find myself working longer into the evening trying to squeeze in every second of productivity, and then before I know it, it’s 9 PM and I have no free time because it’s time to start winding down for bed.  But when it gets darker earlier, time seems to slow down… which means I’m more inclined to slow down, too.  And instead of spending my evenings being productive, I’ll spend them working on our fall puzzle, reading books, or just… hanging out.  I’ll also indulge in a mid-week glass of wine more often during the fall and winter because it feels more luxurious when it’s dark outside.  But I think the most important thing of all is – FEELING LIKE I’M SLEEPING LATER.  I have never been a morning person, I don’t think I will ever be a morning person, and I LOVE TO SLEEP IN so waking up at 6 AM every morning is devastating to me.  But when those clocks fall back one hour and my alarm goes off at 6 AM, but it feels like 7 AM – IT IS GLORIOUS.  Amen.

 

9.  Soup Season & Slow Cooker Meals – I could eat soup, stew, or a hearty slow cooker meal every single day during the fall and winter.  I love it all.  I’d actually eat it year-round, but it just doesn’t have the same appeal when it’s 95 degrees outside.  Therefore, we have to reserve all of our hearty meals for the cool weather months, which are few here in the south.  A few of my favorites – white chicken chili, lasagna soup, sausage and tortellini soup, ranch chicken pasta, and beef stroganoff.  My mouth is watering just thinking about these!

 

8.  Halloween – I’ve always loved Halloween, but it has been so much more fun since we had kids (although Brian and I had a lot of fun with it before we had kids, too).  We’ve had the same Halloween traditions for years… we go to Spirit Halloween to shop for costumes and look at their creepy animatronics, the kids decorate haunted gingerbread houses, we carve pumpkins under the twinkle lights on the back porch, we decorate the house with bats and ghosts and our big skeleton, Dead Fred, I assist with Trunk or Treat at the kids’ school on Halloween morning, and then we have our traditional Halloween dinner of mummy dogs, Cheetos Bag of Bones, candy corn fruit skewers, etc. before heading out to trick-or-treat around our neighborhood, usually with friends.  Our neighborhood goes ALL OUT for Halloween and people drive in from all over to be here for it – everyone sits out on their porches and driveways, some have haunted houses for the kids, some hand out Jell-o shots or beers for the adults, and it’s just such a fun and festive night every year.  We end every single Halloween night with a viewing of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and then we all go to sleep on Halloween night knowing that when we wake up… BOOM, we can officially start listening to Christmas music!  Yes, we are those people.  Hahahaha.

 

7.  Fall Fashion – Fall and winter is my favorite time to dress because there are so many more options than there are in the summer.  Here in the south, it’s HOT all summer, so you have no choice but to stick to tanks, shorts, dresses, and sandals, but during the winter you can wear chunky sweaters, tall boots, long cardigans, leggings as pants, sweater dresses, flannel shirts, tunics, ballet flats, and aaaallll the layers.  So.  Many.  Options.  Yes ma’am. 

 

6.  Fall Music, Movies, & Shows – Oh, there is nothing better than the sweet sound of old standards like Michael Buble, Steve Tyrell, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, or Rod Stewart’s songbook classics wafting through the house while I’m cooking or working on a puzzle with the family.  And I also love some contemporary songs for fall, too, like Autumn Leaves by Ed Sheeran, This is What Autumn Feels Like by JVKE, and so many more… I guess I need to share that play list sometime!  And we definitely can’t forget our Halloween playlist… that one is always super fun for October.  And the movies – oooohhhh the movies and shows!  You’ve Got Mail, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, Hocus Pocus, Casper, Stepmom, Father of the Bride (mostly because of the music), Gilmore Girls… I could go on and on.

 

5.  Cinnamon & Pumpkin Everything – Cinnamon is my favorite scent (aside from a good men’s cologne and the tops of my newborn babies’ heads – you can see my Top Ten Scents here), and I love nothing more than putting those first drops of cinnamon and pumpkin spice oil in the diffuser after a long summer of lime and vanilla.  It’s warm and spicy and so inviting, and it brings me instant peace when I smell it because in the blink of an eye it brings back all of the sweet memories from holiday seasons past.  And not only do I love cinnamon and pumpkin scented things, but I love to eat and drink all the cinnamon and pumpkin things, too – my beloved Harney & Sons Hot Sunset Cinnamon tea that I drink year-round tastes 10 times better this time of year, and I just want to eat and drink all the pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin donuts, pumpkin cream cold brews, pumpkin pie, and my Aunt Joy’s famous cinnamon muffins – it’s all so delicious. 

 

4.  Cool, Crisp Air – It is HOT during the summer here, y’all, and our summers are known to continue well into October some years – I would say we have about eight months that are HOT and only four or so that are cool or cold.  So, we truly covet those rare cool, crisp fall days when the heat finally retreats but the bitter cold hasn’t settled in… and by bitter cold, I mean, like 40 degrees.  Haha.  I love to be cozy, so nothing brings me more joy than that first chill in the air when I can finally pull out the heated blanket, light a fire in the fireplace, turn on the seat warmers in my car, and put on my fuzzy socks, slippers, and pajama pants. 

 

3. The Décor – Fall foliage, fall foliage, fall foliage.  I have faux fall foliage all over the house right now and it makes me so happy!  I also love my pumpkins, and eventually my ghosts, bats, and skeletons when October comes.  Fall décor is just so dang cozy.  And the best fall décor of all, of course, is God’s fall décor – all of those leaves of red and gold and maroon and burnt orange… He is the ultimate designer.

 

2.  College Football – If you’ve followed for any amount of time, you know that we are die hard University of Georgia fans and we are obsessed with college football!  (I love it so much, I wrote this VERY lengthy post about it with so many fun throwback pictures three years ago after we won our first National Championship since 1980.)  There is nothing better than a college football Saturday in the fall!  Whether we’re there in person tailgating and then screaming along with 92,000 other fans under the stadium lights or we’re snuggled up on the couch watching ESPN College GameDay and football for 15 hours on a Saturday surrounded by all of our fall décor and cheers-ing with craft beers, I am ONE HAPPY GIRL.  I LOVE college football – we live for this season – and fall would not be fall without college football.

 

1.  Thanksgiving Week and the Anticipation of Christmas – While I love Christmas break, I’m always kind of sad when Christmas Eve and Day are over, so I actually think Thanksgiving break is my favorite because we still get to do Christmas (and Thanksgiving) things while still anticipating the actual Christmas season.  The kids get an entire week off for Thanksgiving, and we spend it relaxing, watching Christmas movies, enjoying our Christmas decorations, gathering with family, crossing various holiday traditions off the list like watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, and soaking up the season.  And when the week is over, we go back to school and work knowing that in just a mere few weeks we’ll have two whole weeks off to celebrate my favorite holiday of all – Christmas!

 

And that’s it, y’all!  Hopefully I’m not forgetting anything.  Wishing you all a joyful fall with the ones you love!

And if you want to see any of my other Top Ten posts I'll link them below!

Top Ten... Favorite Scents

Top Ten... Favorite Shows

Top Ten... Things I Love About Fall

Top Ten... Songs of 2024

Happy Wednesday, y’all!

Top Ten… Songs of 2024

*This post contains affiliate links.  As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Remember when I said I was going to start doing a series of various Top Ten posts and then I did three and never did another one?  Yep, me too.  Haha.  I intended to do this post in January when I was doing all of my 2024 wrap-up posts, but I never got around to it… mostly because it was too hard for me to narrow the post to just ten songs.  I have had several requests from readers to do more music posts, so I’m glad I finally got around to doing it, though… this one is for y’all!

Hi, my name is Lindsay, and music is the most important thing in my life besides the obvious things like God, family, and necessities.  I have loved it since I was tiny.  I listen to it all day while I work, I listen to it in the car, I listen to it when I work out, I listen to it when I cook.  NOTHING makes me happier than music… especially live music.  It makes me feel alive and it allows me to get lost in the present moment like nothing else (which rarely happens for this Type A, planning, scheduling, not-spontaneous girl who always has a million things going on in her brain).  I also LOVEEEE introducing music to fellow music fans and connecting with others that way.  I honestly think that they need to add a sixth love language because music would most definitely be mine.

I love pretty much every genre, and my music collection is incredibly eclectic, so it was verrrry hard for me to narrow down this list.  Keep in mind that some of these songs have not yet been released as singles by the artists… they just happened to be my favorites on the albums that were released last year.  Also, I made sure to only pick one song per artist.  Otherwise, my Top Ten could have easily been just two or three artists.  Lol.  And finally, I listen to some obscure stuff, which means that several of these are not mainstream, so if you’ve never heard some of them, I encourage you to check them out if you want to find some excellent new music and artists.

Working backwards from #10, here we go!

10.  Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter – Yes, yes, I know that this one was very mainstream, and everyone is probably sick of it by now, but it was definitely one of my favorites from 2024… I have to say, I’ve heard it hundreds of times and I’m still not sick of it.  Now that is really saying something!  I also have to say that I was really torn between this one and Bed Chem... I loved that one before she ever released it as a single!

 

9.  Pretty Bird by Dave Matthews – I have loved this man since I was just 12 years old, and I have seen him solo / with the band in concert 28 times and counting.  Dave released this solo cover (originally done by Hazel Dickens) in 2024, and it is such a gem.  The lyrics make me cry every time I hear it.

 

8.  Good News by Shaboozey – I absolutely LOVED A Bar Song by Shaboozey, but his song Good News is, by far, his best song yet.  It was released as a single, but didn’t get much radio play (at least not that I heard), and for the life of me, I don’t understand why.  He performed part of it live at The Grammys and it’s just so good, y’all!

 

7.  Teddy Swims – Some Things I’ll Never Know – I am a HUGE Teddy Swims fan, and I have been listening to him since before he became massively popular, so I actually started listening to this album in 2023 when it came out.  However, the media is considering it a 2024 album because of his hit Lose Control, so I’m going to just go ahead and consider this a 2024 song as well.  This is the first track on his album I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy and it is one of my favorite songs he’s ever done.  This whole album is just fantastic.  We are going to see him in concert in August and I couldn’t be more excited… it’ll be a major bucket list check for sure!

 

6.  It Is What It Is by Judah and the Lion – Brian found Judah and the Lion randomly many years ago.  I thought their first album was okay, but nothing super impressive in my opinion.  Fast forward to 2024, and I fell in love with an artist named Abe Parker.  I found him on Instagram of all places, but it was love at first listen.  He went on tour last year with Judah & the Lion as he was their opening act, so I told Brian I wanted to see him live.  We ended up staying for Judah & the Lion after Abe Parker’s set (of course), and unbeknownst to us, Judah & the Lion had released a new album called The Process.  They played that album from start to finish that night and, y’all, I have never been to a live show where I knew zero songs and loved it so much.  I swear to y’all, I cried real tears at that concert because it was so good.  I downloaded the album the next day and proceeded to listen to it on repeat for months.  The album is about grief, and it goes through all of the stages – denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance, and it is just fantastic from start to finish.  It was hard to choose a favorite song from the album as there are several that were vying for a spot on this list in my mind, but It Is What It Is has to take the cake.  The last couple of years have been rough for me because of my vertigo issues and this whole album felt so healing to me, especially this song as it’s about accepting the things that you cannot control.  As someone who has major control issues, it felt like it was written just for me.

 

5.  What’s Left of Me by Grace VanderWaal – This is another obscure one… I heard it on The Elvis Duran Show because they were talking about how “the little girl who won America’s Got Talent in 2016 was all grown up and had a new single.”  They played it and it was so good that I downloaded it right then and there.  I don’t think it was played on mainstream radio, but it should have been.  I listened to it on repeat for weeks. 

 

4.  I Love You, I’m Sorry by Gracie Abrams – Frankly, I could put this entire album on this list because it’s so, so good.  I started listening to Gracie Abrams right as she was on the precipice of becoming mainstream (I *think* I found her because I’d read that she was opening for Taylor on the Eras Tour but I'm not 100% sure if I'm remembering correctly), and I loved this entire album from the start.  I Love You, I’m Sorry is my favorite song on the album with Us. coming in a close second.  And it ended up being the first song that Olivia learned from start to finish on the guitar, so that makes it even more special.

 

3. It Is What It Is by Abe Parker – Is it not so weird that two of my favorite songs of 2024 both have the same title?!  What are the odds?!  Anyway, Abe Parker is the artist I told all of you about earlier when I was discussing the song by Judah & the Lion.  I found him through a friend on Instagram last year right as he was releasing this song, and I loved it so much that I went and downloaded all of his music from his entire career (which is quite a bit)!  Again, I found this song when I was suffering terribly from vertigo and couldn’t get answers from any doctor, so it just really spoke to me and made me feel less alone.  I ended up going to see him live and I got to meet him afterward.  He was kind and humble and gracious, and when I told him about how his music helped me feel less alone on my vertigo journey, he told me that his sister had suffered from something similar.  Days later, his sister ended up reaching out to me and telling me her story, and all of the resources she provided for me have been so helpful.  If all of this doesn’t have God written all over it then I don’t know what does!  Music is literally healing.

 

2.  Hard Fought Hallelujah by Brandon Lake – This song right here will forever be in my top favorite songs of all time.  It’s all about finding joy in God during the midst of even the hardest struggles in life.  It’s raw, powerful, and so very beautiful and I have listened to it a hundred times since it was released, and I still can’t get enough.  I don’t honestly know what else to say about it because my words could never say what the lyrics in this song say, so all I can do is tell you to give it a listen if you haven’t ever heard it.

 

1.  LOML by Taylor Swift – And the top spot goes to... MY GIRL, TAY!  She released The Tortured Poets Department in 2024, and it is 31 songs of pure brilliance.  Prior to this, I didn’t think she would ever be able to create anything more beautiful than her album, Folklore, (I declared it her magnum opus right after it was released), but friends, TTPD comes in a very close second.  And LOML is a MASTERPIECE from start to finish.  The simplicity of the piano, the way she sings it so quietly, and the lyrics… ohhhh, the lyrics.  This song will absolutely break your heart in two.  I love Taylor Swift, and she has hundreds of songs, but this one?  This one will live in my top three forever.

 

And just for fun, a few honorable mentions…

MILLION DOLLAR BABY by Tommy Richman – It was so hard not to include this one in my top ten, y’all, because WHAT A BANGER.

Stick Season by Noah Kahan

Boo’d Up by Ella Mai

Beautiful Things by Benson Boone

Stargazing by Myles Smith

Belong Together by Mark Ambor

A Lot More Free by Max McNown

All My Love by Coldplay

Lil’ Boo Thang by Paul Russell (technically I think this one was 2023, too)

To wrap up, I came across the song Gravity by Sarah Bareilles last year.  It played in the background while someone was performing on America's Got Talent and I thought it was new.  I Googled the lyrics to see what the song was called and I downloaded it the next day.  I think I listened to this one a hundred times, too, but I didn’t include it in my top ten because as I was looking it up, I found out that it was released in 2007.  Haha.  I don’t know how I went 18 years without hearing this beautiful song, though… if it had been from 2024 it would have taken a spot in my top ten for sure!  The lyrics are beautiful.

This was fun!!  What were some of your favorite songs from 2024?

And if you want to see any of my other Top Ten posts I'll link them below!

Top Ten... Favorite Scents

Top Ten... Favorite Shows

Top Ten... Things I Love About Fall

Happy Wednesday, y’all!

Top Ten… Things I Love About Fall

Last year, I said I was going to start doing a series of various top ten posts here on the blog, and then I only wrote two, so it’s about time for another one!  Since we just officially welcomed fall on the calendar (in my head I welcomed it back at the end of August – LOL), I thought it would be fun to share the top ten things I love about fall!

Working backwards from #10, here we go!

10. Cooler Weather – We live in Georgia, and it is HOT during the summer, often long into September and even October.  So, when that first cool, crisp morning hits, there is just nothing like it!  Highs in the 60’s and 70’s sure beat 100 degrees any day!

 

9.  Fall Foliage – I know this is so cliché, and SUCH a basic thing to love, but y’all, fall foliage has been my favorite since I was little.  I have so many memories of playing in the leaves at the park when I was teeny tiny (and I have the pictures below to prove it!) and also playing in the pine straw, too.  (Because when in Georgia... haha.)  But seeing vibrant colors of yellows and reds and oranges against a bright blue sunny sky?  There’s just nothing like it!  And jumping in a big ol' pile of leaves (or pine straw) as a kid – the BEST.  I've always been a fall girl at heart.

Little old me just dumping a pile of leaves on my Momma's head at the park

The happiest little fall girl in her element <3

More leaf fights

Aaaand some more

And one last picture of our leaf fight

Me helping Mama Cass rake and box up the pine straw in my little paper crown.  Y'all!

And another picture of me playing in the pine straw

8. Seasonal Movies & Music – I’ve always been a huge movie lover, and I have a very long list of comfort movies that I watch as my “happy background noise.”  Christmas movies will always be my favorite, but fall movies are my second favorite.  A few that I love – You’ve Got Mail, Father of the Bride 1 & 2 (not technically set in the fall, but the music gives aaaallll the fall vibes), Stepmom, and so many more.  And we can’t forget the Halloween movies either – Hocus Pocus, Casper, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, etc.  There’s nothing like snuggling up on the couch with my lovies with a bowl of popcorn and a good movie.  And if you've been around here for any amount of time, you know I couldn't live without music.  Music gives me LIFE and it's one of the most important things to me, so I literally have play lists for every single type of mood, event, memory, etc.  So, naturally, I have a fall play list.  It consists mostly of old standards and any kind of acoustic guitar music... it just makes me feel so cozy and happy!  Aaaand, of course, we have our Halloween play list as well, which is the kids' absolute favorite.

Me with my Daddy playing guitar in the yard on a beautiful fall day

 

One of my favorite pictures of the two of us ever

7.  Bringing Out My Seasonal Decor – Ooooh, nothing makes me happier than snuggling up on the couch when the house is decorated for fall and Christmas!  I go all out for fall – pumpkins, leaves, fall trinkets, and buffalo check all over the house – and I always have twinkle lights on, especially once the days get shorter.  Eventually, we pull out the skeletons and bats and spiders, too, and I’ve grown to love that decor just as much as the fall decor!

 

6.  Celebrating Halloween – We have been doing the same thing for Halloween for years, and I love our traditions so much.  It’s one of my favorite days of the whole year!  Most years, the kids are in school on Halloween, so we always do Trunk or Treat at their school that morning.  The high schoolers all decorate their cars in different themes, and they hand out candy to the younger kids.  Then, while the kids are at school, I spend the day prepping for the evening ahead.  That evening, we have our spooky Halloween dinner – mummy dogs, Cheetos Bag of Bones, candy corn fruit skewers, and various other “creepy” foods for dinner, and then the kids get into their costumes.  The grandparents usually join for this (and sometimes the kids’ friends, too), and we walk our neighborhood for a couple of hours collecting candy.  Our neighborhood is the quintessential neighborhood for trick-or-treating as our neighbors go all out, decorating their houses, putting up haunted houses, handing out full-sized candy bars, and some even hand out beer and/or Jello shots for the adults.  Haha.  People actually come from all over the city to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood so it’s always extra festive and PACKED.  After that, we head home, the kids shed their costumes, and then they sort and trade their candy while we end the night with our annual viewing of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.  We have watched that literally every single Halloween night since Jacob was born. 

 

5.  Celebrating Thanksgiving – Thanksgiving is my second favorite holiday (second to Christmas) and I love that entire weekend!  There’s just something about celebrating that holiday and knowing that we’re about to enter the best season of all – Christmas! – that almost makes me like Thanksgiving better than Christmas.  It’s the anticipation, I guess.  Thanksgiving morning, we always make homemade waffles and watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade followed by the dog show, and it’s usually a lazy day doing fall puzzles, snuggling on the couch, and coloring or doing festive crafts.  Then, later in the afternoon, I start cooking whatever dish we’re bringing to my family’s celebration (almost always this hot pineapple casserole).  We all get ready and then meet at my aunt and uncle’s house in the early evening, and the majority of my mom’s extended family is there… there are now, like, 45 of us I think??  We spend the whole evening there, and then we still have three full days off to look forward to when we get home that night.  On Friday, we usually celebrate with my father-in-law with takeout from somewhere.  We used to have a different tradition to go to the country club with him on Thanksgiving Day, but we stopped that during Covid, and I miss it!  Then, Saturday morning, we always have our North Pole breakfast with our elf, and then we celebrate Thanksgiving a third time on Saturday afternoon with my MIL and step-FIL.  They always make a massive spread of food, and we stuff ourselves silly, and then head home to watch college football for the rest of the day.  It’s truly one of my favorite weekends of the whole year!

 

4.  All the Pumpkin Flavored Things – Pumpkin muffins, pumpkin donuts, pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie, pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin pie Blizzards… I will take it all!  I have loved pumpkin since I was a little girl!!  It’s one of my favorite flavors and one of my favorite scents!

 

3. Being Cozy – Cozy is one of my favorite words.  I love to be cozy.  Even during the summer, I like to have the air down low so I can be cold in the house and then wrap up in a blanket.  Give me all the sweaters, scarves, boots, fuzzy socks, snuggly blankets, twinkle lights, cozy scents in my diffuser (pumpkin spice and cinnamon!), fires in fireplace, fall puzzles, and anything else that sets a cozy tone.   

 

2.  College Football, Baby!!!! – We are diehard Georgia Bulldogs fans, and we are college football obsessed as any good southerner should be.  ;o)  We literally plan our schedules around college football on Saturdays, and most Saturdays during college football we don’t even leave the house.  We pretty much have college football on from 9 AM (ESPN College GameDay!) until 11 PM when we got to bed on Saturdays.  And some Saturdays, we attend games in person since we have season tickets, and those are the best Saturdays ever!  We love to drive to Athens and tailgate with family and friends, and then cheer on our Dawgs in the stadium!  If you want to know just how diehard we are, you can see this post from a couple of years ago.  I had the most fun putting it together because – aaaallll the throwback photos!

 

1.  Knowing That Christmas is Right Around the Corner!!!! – It’s truly the most wonderful time of the year, and the anticipation during the fall leading up to the Christmas season is my favorite!  I am positively giddy every year when Christmas music starts on the radio (usually around November 1 here), and I will never tire of doing all the festive Christmas things.  Christmas Eve has been my favorite day of the year for my entire life, and I just don’t think that will ever change.

 

And that’s my top ten!! 

This was fun!!  What are some of your favorite things about fall?

And if you want to see my previous Top Ten lists, click the links below!

Top Ten... Favorite Scents
Top Ten... Favorite Shows