Holidays: October 2005 Archives

***This post will be updated as needed***


My house on All Hallows Eve

Colby and Gracie's scarey pumpkin.

Steven's geek pumpkin Pi.

The front porch during the day.

The front porch at dusk.

These are the cutest scarecrow planters. I LOVE them.

The Trio on the way out to trick or treat.

Gracie has a great princess costume but it is hidden under the fur cape. She has been so sick this weekend I made her wear it tonight. The night air is really cool and she has a bad cough. Notice the ruby red slippers. She got those for her birthday last year and wears them every chance she gets -which isn't often. She is in heaven dressed as a princess and wearing her ruby red slippers.
Steven is so not impressed with his costume. Too bad. I like it. LOL I have had more kids at my country door tonight than we ever had in No. Va. in a townhouse complex of 150 homes. It is 7:11 and I am almost out of candy!! I bought 8 mega bags of candy and 6 of chocolates and it is almost gone!! 8:31pm - This is the best Halloween we have had since I was a kid. Seriously. The entire village turned out. The police was riding our road back and forth giving out candy, blocking traffic and making sure kids were safe. People were stopping Steven, Colby and Gracie to take their picture. They were told they were the best costumes of the evening over and over again. The preacher at the local village church made them let her take their picture before she would give out candy. Women had a fit over Steven and wanted to know how he was convinced to dress up. Ha! Like he even had a choice. LOL They had such a great time. Next year my cemetery is going out in front! With this kind of community turn out it was just agreat evening of fun with polite kids who actually said "thank you" for the candy. I was impressed. Steven's pumpkin Pi was a big hit. Several moms asked if a Math or science teacher lived here. No, just a computer programer. They laughed. The boys thought the puking pumpkin was cool. Steven says next year he is dressing up as a cowboy. We'll see. Can you guess who Colby is? This is her idea of Mary, Queen of Scots. My kids have some kind of monarchy syndrome/complex. The year before last it wasn't enough to be a princess or a queen. No, not Colby. She was an Empress. Last year a Dowager -like the Queen Mother. What's next? I have no idea! It sure will be fun finding out.

I don't know about the rest of the free world but this time change has really screwed with me and Gracie. We both were ready to go to bed at 7pm last night. I have been up since 3:30am. She followed at 4:45am. I started a fire in firepace and after a glass of juice she pulled up a pillow and a throw and lay in front of the fire and drifted back to sleep. She normally doesn't have to be up until 6:45am but often wakes up at 6 - 6:15. We both were up a couple times in the night as well. It is going to be a long day. Today I have my first appointment with the new doctor. I am a bit nervous because of the bad taste left from the old man doctor of late. Steven and Colby will be dressed in costume to take Gracie trick or treating this evening. I cannot wait to be able to snap those photos for posterity. LOL I have 2 giant bowls of candy to give out and I think my costume is just going to be the pregnant housewife look. I have no idea what to expect in this village as far as the trick or treaters go. I do know there is a partial school bus load of kids around here so maybe my door will be busy. We have carved three pumpkins for the evening events. Colby and Gracie did a scarey face and a puking pumpkin. Steven did a very geek Pumpkin Pi. Yes, Pi. Not pie. It looks pretty cool and is perhaps the scariest of all -ohhh spooky math. LOL I am trying to decide what's for supper. At this moment I have no idea whatsoever. When I was a very little kid, under age 8, my mother, sister and I lived with my grandparents. Halloween was a big deal! We got together with the neighboring kids and went through the neighborhood together. Man the loot we collected! In a 3 block by 3 block quadrant we racked up on the candy. One lady made popcorn balls and another candy apples. We had to remember who gave us the candy apples because if it was someone that might be a shady personality we would have to throw them away. My grandmother always made candy apples. I can still see the bright red candy coated apples on her large baking sheet that she used for cooking biscuits. Those were the days. When my mother remarried we moved to the country and farm life began. There wasn't a house near us for over a mile and a half. There was no trick or treating. No drives to where neighborhoods were either. For the next few years my momma would throw a halloween party for the people we knew with kids our age. It was alot of fun. We had real hayrides in the hay wagon. Back then it seems it was much colder than it is now. I can remember being so cold and the icey wind biting into our cheeks. By the time the ride was over everyone was scrambling to get close to the fire and have something warm to eat and drink. When my own kids came along I couldn't hardly wait for them to be old enough for the Halloween goings on. I made so many costumes. Colby has been several variations of a princess, pocahontas, little mermaid, Thing, a clown, a witch, a hobo, a ballerina, 50's sock hop-ster, a cracked egg and last year she was a Dowager. This year she is planning to be an elizabethian queen. She loves dressing up and taking Gracie out. I suspect as long as there is a child in this house and right through to her own children she will always have a reason to dress up and play on Halloween. Gracie's costume history has not been so widely varied. Gracie has been a princess of some sort every single year. Most often a pink princess. This year isn't much different. She is going to be a snow princess, dressed all in white. She isn't happy unless she is a princess. How can you tell a 7 year old girl she is not really a princess? Last year Steven dressed in his old tuxedo from college days and was Frederick, Colby's son. She played the english dowager role perfectly. She really should be a drama student but crownds and unknown people make her very nervous. Tomorrow I should have lots of photos to share and I'll be around as usual to see all of yours. Thank you so much for the supportive comments from yesterday. I think I was more pregnant-lady-upset by the bogus comments left and discovered at 4am yesterday than anything. I deleted them and blocked the IP's. It is all water under the bridge and I am moving on. I do need to update my list and add several great journals. If you link to me and I don't know, speak up and let me come see your place, please. Happy halloween, y'all!

We took the kids out to a small local farm to choose pumpkins yesterday afternoon. There were three fields of pumpkins, fresh apples, ornamental squash, and potted mums to purchase. They had hayrides, face painting, a scarecrow that tied ballons into animal shapes, hay mazes, corn, horse rides and a small petting zoo. The term petting zoo was pushing it. They had some farm animals in corals close to the pumpkin happenings. Not too keen on horses (I don't think), Steven seemed to be interested in the 2 asses in one of the stalls. He came home and started researching mules. I swear I hope he doesn't decide he wants a mule. We are planning for chickens next spring and 2 dairy goats. After I got pregnant this year I wasn't able to handle a lot of farm stock so we waited. He is convinced he wants to fatten up a heffer and a pig for next winter. What would he do with a mule? The two youngest wanted to have a ride on the horses. The horses were old and I doubt they could have run away if they tried. They really looked tired and I felt bad about it. Steven and I chose three large pumpkins to have on the porch for fall decorations. I plan to only carve one for Halloween and only because of trick or treating. The girls each chose a smallish pumpkin from the fields and we chose yet another small pumpkin. The small pumpkins I will be roasting over the next couple of weeks. We will have fresh pumpkin as a vegetable for supper and I will be roasting and putting away enough pumpkin for fresh pies for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Roasting pumpkins is very easy. These are every day regular pumpkins not fancy sugar pumpkins. I like sugar pumpkins but you can't always find them. A plain pumpkin will work fine for pie. Don't be afraid to experiment a little. Choose nice smallish pumpkins (5 - 8 pounds). Wash them well. They are filthy even if they look clean. Carefully with a large knife split the pumpkin in half. Use a big spoon and scrape away the fiber and the seeds. Pour a little olive oil (or vegetable oil) into your hands and rub the pumpkin halves until all are coated with a nice thin layer. This protects the meat from drying out and burning. Place the 2 halves skin side up (cut side down) on an oiled baking sheet or lined with foil or a silpat. Bake at 375 degrees until the meats are fork tender. The scent is amazing! To serve as a vegetable for supper you can sprinkle with salt and pepper, maybe add a little curry. Pumpkin is excellent with a little pat of butter and eaten like a potato. For pumpkin pie you will need to mash or puree the baked pumpkin meat. A 5- 8lb pumpkin will yeild 2 - 3 cups of puree. To this add: 2/3 cup sugar 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1/4 tsp ground ginger 1/4 tsp nutmeg Pinch ground cloves 1 1/2 c evaporated milk 2 eggs, lightly beaten 1/2 tsp salt Before you add the eggs you can taste the pumpkin filling and adjust the spices to your liking. You can buy pumpkin pie spice and eliminate the need of adding all of the measured spices as well. The pumpkin pie spice is on the spice aisle at the grocer. You can also buy apple pie spice. Pour mixture into a 9 inch pie shell. Bake at 350 until the a toothpick inserted into the center pulls away clean. If the edges of your pie shell are browning too quickly fold a couple of strips of foil around the edges of the pie leaving the center uncovered to finish baking. Any leftover filling can be frozen. We picked up a basket of apples which I will be cooking today as well. We finished up our apples from our trees last month. We had only a small crop thanks to the damn birds. I will be cooking a pork roast today with pumpkin, squash, apples and prunes. Very polish meal. On one side of Steven's family his grandfather was a finnish immigrant. On the other side both of his great grandparents were polish. He has never really eaten alot traditional polish foods -I have no idea why. The pork roast and fall veggies is one of my favorites. I know he is going to love it too. The hearty vegetables with the sweet apples and prunes - mmmmmmmm mmmmm, good stuff. I also make a pumkpin potato soup with bacon that is amazing! I'll try to get that recipe up too while pumpkins are plentiful. I know you all do not cook in big batches and freeze like I do. Since so many of you seem interested in trying the cicken and dumpling I will post later today a recipe on my recipe journal for just a normal size pot of chicken and dumplings -using 1 chicken. Updated to add: What is up with Haloscan? I can't post a comment on most journals this morning.

And I love rainy days. This past long weekend has been a real treat for me. It was cool and overcast, the heavens opening off and on to shower us with liquid sunshine. It was the best! Steven took the holiday off. J. was out of school and with us. The only bad thing was Gracie having to go to school yesterday and having to get up at 6:30am. Once we got Gracie off to school, the rest of us had breakfast. Colby reminded me she needed graph paper. The only place in this rural county to buy it is at Walmart. We all piled into the Excursion and went to Walmart with a stop at Lowe's to get supplies for me to paint J.'s room. While at Walmart, Steven was looking at whatever it is that men look at, I took a few minutes to browse the Christmas decorations being put out. Hate me if you want for Christmas shopping but Christmas is my most favorite time of the year and I spend months beforehand planning and getting ready for it. The staircase railings in this house are much larger than at the townhouse so I needed more garland and lights for the upstairs banisters as well as the railings. I needed a large wreath form for over the fireplace as well as a different centerpiece since this mantle is very thin. I also picked up premade outdoor red ribbons for the 14 wreaths I bought a couple months ago for the outside windows that face the public view of the house. Steven wanted to get a stocking for the new baby but I was totally against it. The baby won't be born at Christmas and I feel it is wrong and tempting fate to hang a full stocking. We made a compromise. I agreed for him buy to a teeny tiny red stocking just as a momento. I needed several hundred lights for the Christmas tree for the upstairs hallway and new lights for the small trees each of the girls have in the bedrooms at Christmas. I have collected Christmas tree ornaments for over 20 years. Every room in my house has a decorated tree. I tend to stick to the same theme of rustic country. I love pinecones and cranberry beads. Handmade victorian ornaments and souvenirs from places we visit. So anyway, back to yesterday ... When we got back home Steven and I watched a movie (I, Robot) and then he took a nap. I was determined to find my fall wreath for the front door and headed up to the attic. Once there I realized that I should NEVER send Steven up there for anything. Things had been pulled from boxes and left laying in stacking. Things I had organized into like items had been knocked over and moved. It was a total wreck up there. I did not intend to spend the entire afternoon cleaning out the attic but that is exactly what I did. I started sorting and stacking like things together, putting in nails for some items to hang on and repacking a few boxes that should have never been opened. Within an hour Colby came up and started helping. Soon after up came Steven. One thing you don't want is for Steven to help. Not only does he make a bigger mess he gets all crazy and acts hog wild and starts shoving and throwing things around and not being careful. I asked him several time to leave and he wouldn't. Well in his flamming around he managed to drop a heavy thing on his foot and you can imagine how he was then. Actually it is quite funny watcing him be a caveman and laughing just makes it worse but sometimes you just have to laugh. It took about 3 hours to get things done up there but it was time well spent. Before there was a tiny path to one side of the attic. Now, I have cleared all the empty boxes and mess that should have been thrown away when we moved and nearly half the attic is open space and not full of junk. I dare anyone to go up and pull out things. I did bring down my maternity clothes for winter. I washed them too. They are in the dryer. I had forgotten what beautiful clothes they are. My friend, the retired clothing designer for whom I was a surrogate, made every piece. Custom made and designed for my pregnant body out of material she had collected from all over the world. I had forgotten about all of the beautiful silk scarves and ties. Not any of that frou frou bows and junk that make pregnant women look like little girls or hippies. Elegant peices that can be worn in day and dressed up to wear in the evening. Not too formal not too casual, just right. I found my fall wreath and it is hanging on the front door. I'll take a photo and post it this week. Christmas Preparations: (I try to be finished in October with all gift purchases) I have finished my Christmas baskets. My mother and my sister and her family have recieved their Christmas gifts. They recieved all of their boxes last month. MommaK the BBQ sauce is excellent. I know everyone will enjoy it as part of their baskets. I have purchased any new decorations I think I will need. I do not plan to buy anything else -except maybe lights. I hate when you are in the middle of decorating and you find a set of light have bit the dust. I have a list of what Santa will be bringing and have my eye on several items I plan to pick up this week. I also will be ordering our Christmas cards this week. I still have so much to do! Christmas decorations go up the weekend following Thanksgiving. That is a little over a month away. After that I have to focus on my baking and cooking. I think I need some elves to help pull this off this year. I wonder how much energy I will have at month 8 of this pregnancy. Gracie was born the week before Christmas on the 17th. She was due on the 24th but my doctor let me choose to induce so we would all be home for Christmas. I was the only patient he had due to deliver for the entire month. So among the Christmas preparations, I have also an 8 year old birthday party to plan for. I have gotten several gifts already and those are tucked away, too. And yourself? Do you prepare far in advance for a perfect Christmas season? Man, this is a rambling and scattered post. I am having trouble focusing with everything I have planned swirling in my mind this morning.