When you have a backyard like ours, with so many huge trees with so many thousands upon thousands of leaves, there’s only one thing to do on a late-November afternoon. It takes a bit of work at first, but the Girl loves work when it’s play — a sort of Tom Sawyer in reverse.

Yet quickly enough, the fun begins.

The Girl remembers from last year the fun of jumping in the leaves, but she’s forgotten — or simply not realized — the fact that she weighs significantly more this year. And this means a harder impact, for leaves don’t provide as much cushion as a five-year-old might assume.

The Boy, on the other hand, takes a totally different approach. Calm, curious he sits among the leaves and wiggles his feet, swings his arms, and enjoys the newness of the situation.

It’s easy to credit this to his age, but there’s a personality difference that’s indisputable.

There’s a certain explosiveness to the Girl (“You think?” responds everyone who’s ever met her.) that finally finds direction, throwing leaves here, there, and just about everywhere.

The amount of leaves in her hair after this little adventure astounds. And we haven’t even begun burying each other.

Still, we sometimes manage to get her calmed down within the near proximity of the Boy for a portrait.

But the calm doesn’t last.

Still, it wouldn’t be the same family if it did.