Finally Feels Like Autumn

I love Halloween. Halloween was a big deal growing up at my house. I think my favorite Halloween memories, besides going to haunted houses every year, involve going to my grandma's house after trick or treating. Grandpa opened the door with the same ugly mask on every year. Grandma had caramel apples, glazed doughnuts, and hot apple cider ready for all the grandkids. I loved that I could count on the same tastes, smells, decorations, and family fun every year. Plus, we'd trick or treat some more in her neighborhood, and some guy gave out mini loaves of Wonder Bread, which was pretty cool. Jake's favorite Halloween memories..."I had a couple of Halloween/Birthday sleepovers growing up. All my friends would come over to my house in costume, go out trick or treating, and then come back for my birthday party and sleepover. Also, I could never understand how JJ down the street could have Halloween candy left by the time Thanksgiving rolled around."



Onto what we did this week... We dressed up on Friday night to visit some Halloween celebrators for a few minutes. We grabbed wigs and decided we would just tell people we were "wiggin out". Tessa did really well with keeping the wig on. I couldn't stop laughing at her. We decided it was going to be included in her official Halloween costume, too. Jake's brother Matt came into town for work last weekend as well, and we were so happy to be able to visit with him. We picnicked and took a walk in downtown McKinney (I love that place)on Saturday and just enjoyed the night air. Tessa shared her first icecream cone with me. She would stick out her tongue and wait for me to swipe some icecream across it. :)
Sunday we drove around downtown Dallas before taking Matt back to the airport. I hadn't been in some of those areas of Dallas. There are so many places I still need to discover.

Halloween was a blur for the most part. I was little more frazzled than I wanted to be by the time I got Tessa to the Trunk or Treat party at the church. Among many other things, Jake's snowglobe from New York was pulled off the bookshelf and shattered. The destructive ability of my child has been grossly underestimated until now. I had never smelled anything like the snowglobe liquid that seeped into my carpet. That was bad news...and a lot of work to get it taken care of. Anyway, I finally got Tessa and myself to Trunk or Treat (along with chili and Jake's costume). It was an all day school day for Jake, but he braved the traffic during rush hour to see Tessa for her first Halloween --plus he was part of her costume. He was with us for about forty minutes before running back to night class. We enjoyed our ward members and friends....and my first trunk or treat ever. I still think that's a whole lotta candy in a short amount of time. Where's the work ethic we used to put into Halloween candy gathering? Why, back in my day.......

Lastly, Jacob turned thirty-one today! Since he had a cake and cookies at work, I decided not to overload on that stuff, so I made Jello jigglers to go with our pizza and movie party. I tried to cut a birthday cake in the Jello with a steak knife before Jake realized what I was doing, and, well, you can see the outcome for yourself. At least he got a good laugh out of it. Happy Birthday, sweetie!