Pumpkins in the garden...

"Autumn" is officially here...... I drove to one of the local churches to buy a bunch of pumpkins for the flowerbeds in the front of the house. The church where I get them every year sets up a huge straw-covered pumpkin patch on the church grounds....... hundreds of pumpkins in all sizes, at very reasonable prices, and all the money goes to church, which is nice.

So even though our Autumn temperature is still in the high 80s, there are now six pumpkins sitting in the flowerbeds. We probably won't carve them for Halloween..... it's too hot here, and the pumpkin faces quickly turn ugly, which isn't a bad thing, considering it's Halloween, but they get soft and mushy and filled with ants-- which isn't a good thing. So the pumpkins will be face-less once again this year. I thought of making pumpkin people--- three pumpkins, with the largest one on the bottom, a medium one in the middle, and a small one for the head... like a snowman... but I couldn't figure out how to attach the three pumpkins together. I thought the pumpkin people would look cute..... although I'm sure the neighbors would think I've lost my mind.

Speaking of neighbors...... just about everyone has called to RSVP for the Halloween party.... we're just waiting for a few of our friends, the same ones who are usually the last to call. I'll wait till the end of the week before I start calling them, to see if they'll be here. 23 people so far, not counting my husband and myself.... and I'm betting that just about everyone will be here in costume.

We've also got a jump-start on Thanksgiving...... I mailed out dinner invitations and our friends have already called to tell us they'll be here. I've already made the place cards and filled up the gift-bags for Thanksgiving...... pretty leaf-shaped soaps and guest towels with a leaf design that I had bought after last year's holiday.

I haven't bought anything new for Halloween, and I won't be buying any Thanksgiving decorations either. Same for Christmas...... we surely have more than we need for Christmas, and I will probably go through all the Christmas decorations and donate some of those things as well. In my holiday storage closet, I have everything I need for our Valentine's party next year, as well as our St. Patty's Day lunch, and even Easter. There's even stuff in there for an Ice Cream Sundae party, which we were supposed to have this past summer but we just never got around to it.