Halloween

"What is written in the Law?" 

[Jesus] replied. "How do you read it?"

He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind';  and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."

Luke 10:26-28

 

Halloween is a big deal at our house. I've enjoyed the holiday ever since I can remember it. When I was 7 my mother gave my two brothers (ages 6 and not quite 5) and I each a brown paper bag and sent us out. I don't even think she dressed us up in costumes. We were out tricker-treating for quite a long time. My brother Bill even had to go back home to get a new bag, because he had filled the first one. The next year we moved to a different house in the neighborhood and I met someone who would be my best friend for the next 7 years and we always tricker-treated together. Our neighborhood (which is the same one I live in today, and I can see Jan's house from my current house) was absolutely chock-a-block with kids - hundreds of them. My Mom would feed us soup for supper and I'd be working at getting my brothers (I have six brothers) into costumes - usually something like mummies or wounded soldiers. Then at 6 o'clock we would rush out to trick-or-treat. My Mom usually counted about 300 kids coming to our house.   She would hand out sticks of gum, while our next-door-neighbors handed out 10 cent candy bars - which was absolutely unheard of at that time.   Then we would all return home sometime between 8:30 and 9 o'clock, take off our costumes, and have a donut and apple cider in front of the fire.   And then we each would get a mixing bowl, stake out an area on the living room rug, dump out our candy and sort it, and wrangle any trades that might suit us.  And of course, one always counted the important candies to make sure no one took any of them.



The year I was 10 I did all of the above, and the next day, a holiday, my mother took me down town and she had the hairdresser cut my hair WAY TOO SHORT, and bought me a bag of some candy I liked.    But the next day I did not feel well and found it difficult to stand up straight, and I was kept home. By the afternoon my mother realized that I had not eaten any candy, not the halloween candy, nor the one she had bought me.   So at about 4 o'clock she rushed me to the doctor, and he said it was my appendix, and I was rushed to the hospital.   They put me into a wheel chair, took my blood, got me into hospital clothes, and soon I was wheeled into surgery, where they told me to count backwards from 100. I got to 90.   They kept me in the hospital for a week, where I was fed terrible food, and was supervised by grumpy nuns, who had no sympathy for how terrible the food was, or how boring it all was.   But the best thing was that I got letters from the kids in my class, including one from the boy I liked who told me about the arithmetic we were learning, and said he'd teach me when I got back - I think it was long devision. He and I were the best at math in the class, but we were also the slowest readers. He looked like a 10 year old version of Tom Seleck.  And also, I was glad that my hair was going to have a chance to grow out before the kids at school saw it.  This was in the days when you wore a hat to church, and my hair was so short you could hardly see it under my hat.



But anyway, halloween was hectic all day long. I start out the day by getting up at 6:30 and finishing Harry Potter et le Prisonnaire d'Azkaban. Then I decided that I really needed to take a shower, so I pounded on the bathroom door to urge Riley to not take too long. But at that Corey heard me and said that she needed to get into the shower. But upon investigation it seemed that she had almost two hours before she needed to go to work, so I explained that I would really like to take a shower, because when it's just Emily and me I'm out of luck in the shower department. I promised to give her a ride to work. So quick like a bunny I took a shower, dried my hair, got dressed and rushed down stairs to collect Emily and Christian, so I could take Christian to school. Then I hurried back, fed Emily breakfast, then got ready to take Corey to work. Somewhere in all of that I called Sarah and asked her if she would like to have coffee with Emily and me, as I had decided to go to Fabric Depot to get a piece of black see through material. She called back to say that she and Caleb would love to have coffee with us. We had a lovely time at coffee, and both children behaved themselves very well, and we left Starbucks shortly after 12 and headed for Winco, where we again all had a lovely time. Sarah had the stroller and I had a cart with Emily in it, and Emily held on to the stroller. She and Caleb are really quite fond of one another.



We got back home at about 1:30. I fed Emily a big lunch, she was rather ravenous, which was nice for a change as it can be very hard to get her to eat sometimes. She's especially fond of the applesauce I made. Then she very willingly went down for a nap, and I think I did too. Though somewhere in there I got the bread started and the table set. And Emily's costume mended. It's all a blur to me. Tom was to pick the children up for trick or treating at 5, but of course he never showed.

Ken and Marilyn showed up shortly before six, and Marilyn helped me finish cleaning up the kitchen. Somewhere in all of that I made two almond carrot cakes, but i can't quite remember when. Then by six children began arriving. I love to go see the children at the door, so that slowed me down in whatever I was doing, but finally dinner was all ready.



Halloween Dinner Menu:

fried crab cakes
fried salmon cakes
green salad with a special green vinaigrette (I used green onion and basil leaves to make it green)
barbecued filet minion - Ken bought them and Riley cooked them and they was awesome
baked potatoes and sour cream
fried mushrooms
red wine from Woodenville
Asti Spumante
French bread
almond carrot cake



It was a really awesome dinner. Sitting there with the table all elegant looking with candles and all made for a great decoration for the tricker-treaters. And answering the door was a breeze, and we all got to see all the children and their costumes. My absolute favorite on is pictured below. When I answered the door and saw her I said, "I love you costume, who are you?!" She answered, "I can see Russia from my house." Not only was she dressed up like Sarah Palin, she really really looked like Sarah Palin, and acted like her too. Her friends are (1) and American tourist, (2) Jo the plumber, and (3) an iPod.



Before we were finished eating, Sarah and Caleb showed up. We all continued to sit at the table until it seemed that the kids was really slowing down. We then headed for Heidi's house. When we got there Heidi and Christian and Emily were out tricker-treating. Someone called to find out just where they were and it turned out that Heidi was heading back, because she was feeling very very sick. Christian and Emily were with Kristin Wallace and her soon to be son Kyle. It was reported that Emily was getting tired. We knew that someone would have to be carrying her, so we headed out to meet up with them. Sure enough, Kristin was carrying her. They had just been to a house with a huge blow-up of Homer Simpson and Emily was quite scared. As soon as I got near her she wanted me to hold her, and she told me all about the monster.

“History is nothing but a pack of tricks that we play upon the dead”

Voltaire