The Holiday Season: Part 1 - Halloween

-
Halloween has come and gone and we are officially plunged into the holiday season. This year Hannah designed her own costume as Pippi Longstocking and the boys were all pirates. I wore the renaissance dress I made months ago and Steven wore a peasant shirt I made for him.

The first of the holiday celebration was actually a week before the actual day, when we had our ward trunk-or-treat. We enjoyed the traditional chili and cinnamon rolls, then the kids had fun winning prizes playing games. Peter loved the cake walk especially. I won a chocolate bar as a reward for "best costume" in the adult division. After the games came the trunk-or-treating where the kids gathered a large bag full of candy. Sometime during the evening we lost a red bandana.

The next afternoon we went to a Halloween party at my sister Heather's house in Colorado Springs. We had fun playing Frisbee, socializing with family, and eating hamburgers. Hannah got to carve her first pumpkin. Steven enjoyed spreading rocks in certain areas of the landscaping.

The day before Halloween was the Fall Festival at the elementary school. The kids dressed in their costumes. We ate hotdogs and ice cream bars and the kids enjoyed spending tickets on fun games. Another bandana was left behind at the school.

Finally, almost anti-climatically, it was Halloween Night. We put on our costumes for the last time, placed a jack-o-lantern on the front porch with a lit candle inside, and Steven took the kids for a walk through the neighborhood to plead candy while I stayed home to pass out chocolate to those who came to our door. It was actually a fairly warm and pleasant evening. The kids came home and promptly dumped their bags out on the dining table and proceeded the Halloween Night ritual of sorting their sugary loot by type and size.

So now, two weeks later, the Halloween candy is finally gone. (From visible sight anyway. Unfortunately, my scale is showing were some of it went.) The roasted pumpkin seeds have been eaten. The moldy pumpkins have been thrown out. The red dye has washed from Hannah's hair. The swords, eyepatches, scarves and bandanas (those that were left) were retired for another year. The kids have finally come down from their sugar high and we have begun making plans for Thanksgiving and lists for Christmas. I love this time of year.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Talk about Gratitude

-
I recently told my bishop that I enjoyed giving talks in Sacrament Meeting, and it is true. I didn't expect, however, that I would get an email from a bishopric member on Thursday last week to say that his talks for Sunday had to leave town, and would I be willing to speak? Here is the talk that I gave on Sunday, May 27th, 2012: For my topic today, I was given a talk which was given by President Monson in 1992, entitled “An Attitude of Gratitude”. In his talk President Monson begins by telling the story of the 10 lepers. I would like to share it with you. In Luke 17 we read: And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: And they lifted up their voices, and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” And when he saw them, he said unto them, “Go show yourselves unto the priests.” And it came to pass, that, as they went, ...
Read more

How Clean is Clean Enough?

-
Image
How clean is "clean enough"? I realize this question is loaded and the answers are very individual, so for a moment, think about yourself and your home and consider, for you, how clean is "clean enough"? What is the difference between a "quick clean", a "daily clean" and a "deep clean"? At what point do you consider your home "clean enough"? Does "clean enough" mean having a clear path from the front door to the other rooms in the house? Is it having the clutter picked up and the floors vacuumed? Must it be dusted every week, every month, or at all? Is it a quick swipe on the surface to remove the dust or crumbs? Is it a scrub with disinfectant? Is it clearing tables and desks, or delving into cupboards and drawers, purging and organizing?    Does it depend on the day of the week? Is "clean enough" on a weekday the same as "clean enough" on a weekend? If not, is it more clean, or less? Is there a...
Read more

School closing, Josh adventures, Back pain relief...

-
On Wednesday school was cancelled all over the Denver area because there was a credible threat that an 18 year old woman with a fixation on the Columbine shooting would attack a school. Apparently she arrived in Denver and bought a gun and then vanished, so they shut down everything just in case. (They found her body later that day... She committed suicide. More info here .) John was frustrated that school was cancelled because one acts are coming up (they are this week!) and he needed the rehearsal time. Instead, John took advantage of the free day to go to School of Mines to check out the campus and talk to someone about getting his admission deferred. I got a ride to my book club, and both of us were home again before Josh and Peter rolled out of bed. Early in the afternoon I took Josh to Children's Hospital to see a cardiologist about his seizures . They did an EKG, but the results were normal. He doesn't have a heart murmur or anything else they could identify. I still thi...
Read more