It smells like Fall

I have been on this baking kick lately...I don't know why other than maybe I am 28 years old and have finally realized that I need to learn to cook. Of course baking isn't exactly cooking, but I figured it was the easy way to start. I mean, I would rather ruin dessert that all of dinner. The dilemma I have is that I am trying to lose weight. It's not good for someone trying to lose weight to be making creme brulee, chocolate chip cookies, or pumpkin cream cheese cupcakes. That is today's adventure: pumpkin cream cheese cupcakes, I had leftover batter after the cream cheese was gone, so I added chocolate chips and made a few pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes as well. Now I should mention that even though I had to make alterations to it, the base for these cupcakes is just a box cake mix...but let me get to the Fall part.

There are certain things my mom only cooks certain times of year, as is the case with many people. Her pumpkin items, like pumpkin pie, pumpkin roll, pumpkin cookies, etc., only come out in the Fall/Winter months. So as my cupcakes bake in the oven it fills the house with the aromatic sweet pumpkin smell that I only find in the fall.