Halloweenie

Trick or Treating was not in the line up this year, but it has been a whirlwind few weeks of baking pumpkin cakes and loafs for all sorts of social events, window shopping sprees as a family, and Halloween festivities!


A few weeks ago our friends Emily and Josh hosted a fabulous Oktoberfest Poker Party (with no alcohol, and no playing for money, just to clarify...). I don't ever crave German cuisine, but the Bratwurst with sauerkraut, German potato salad, red cabbage and apples and homemade wheat bread made the most amazing meal. We followed it up with my homemade Black Forest Cake and a few hours of poker with our friends.


And then there was the Fall Festival at church. Our friend Jami kindly let Gigi continue her family's tradition of little caterpillars, and I thought Gigi looked kind of delicious. I tried to get Marcos to be a father butterfly, but he wasn't so keen on the wings idea.


One of last weekend's new activities was a Murder Mystery Dinner for my friend Angela's birthday! It was the first time any of us had ever participated in one, and it was pretty entertaining to watch us figure out what we were supposed to be doing. Marcos was an old Italian man, and ended up being the murderer. Oooh lala!


Halloween night we spent indoors with a big chili and cornbread dinner and games night with a group of our friends. Although we really enjoyed the frenetic activities and fun around Halloween, it started me thinking about Thanksgiving. I think that next year I would like to simplify Halloween and put more time and energy into thinking about meaningful ways to celebrate Thanksgiving Day. I don't know what that means yet, but it just seems like the most we take with us from Halloween is cavities, whereas the theme of Thanksgiving can really offer us meaningful memories if we just put a little thought into it...