October Activities. . . Rolled Into One Big Post

You know what I love about Halloween? It has all the fun of Christmas without all the stress and guilt. And considering both the involvement and the turn out for our "Harvest Moon Party" at work there are a lot of other people that feel the same way. Harvest Moon Party? Yeah, we can't officially call it Halloween at work. Although when HR reminded us of this technicality I responded by telling her that I was Wiccan and I didn't appreciate not being able to accurately refer to my high holy day. The way her face contorted in a politically correct effort to hide her dismay was priceless. I can't wait to see her confusion when I start lighting my Menorah for Hanukkah. But I digress.

What started as a simple Pumpkin Carving contest and Eerie Edible Bake-off to raise the morale in the office ended up as an all-out decorating competition between departments complete with spiderwebs and hanging banshees, jars of "brains" and mechanical lawn ornaments, a fog machine and a treasure hunt for the kids. I even won best costume for my pirate garb! The mess we'll need to clean up on Monday morning is completely worth the morale boost because seeing your co-worker in drag does way more for productivity than any sales kick-off ever could.

But the festivities didn't start - or end- there. Last weekend all my family gathered at our house for our annual trip to the pumpkin patch at Lee's Farm. This was our fourth visit to the farm but the first time with our new cousins! What I love about Lee's Farm is that it has all the basic pumpkin patch activities without the lines of Disneyland. We pet the goats and ride the ponies, take a trip through the two-minute hay maze complete with a black plastic culvert slide and then head for the barn to chow on some donuts. Oooohhhh, the donuts. Still warm and dusted with sugar, these apple-cider donuts absolutely melt in your mouth. They are so worth paying $7.00 for a pumpkin.


But of course the main attraction of Halloween is the gathering and gorging of sugary treats. And something mysterious happened while we were out trick-or-treating last night. Maybe it was a full moon or maybe she felt a new sense of bravado behind that clown make-up, but Jamie was not her usual clingy, don't-look-at-me, curl-up-like-a-ball-in-front-of-strangers self last night. She took the lead ringing door bells, remembering her thank-you's and forging her way through groups of strangers up porch steps. It was the spookiest thing of the night. Well, that and the kid dressed up as the Burger King king. That guy creeps me out in a completely wonderful way.


Jamie also took the lead on the gorging of candy. The rule in our house is all the candy you want to eat on Halloween night. With Adam, this has always been more of a suggestion than a challenge. After three or four pieces he was done and on to something else. Jamie took candy eating to a whole new level. After at least ten pieces in as many minutes thoughts of mid-night chocolate peanut butter barf started dancing in my head and we had to call a halt to the gluttony. And for the next half hour we laughed as she bounced around the living room like a raving midget clown on some really good shit. God, how I love Halloween!