Happy Halloween!

Boo to all of you....... but it doesn't seem like Halloween here unless we look at our Halloween decorations around the house. Between not having our usual Charades group for the Halloween Costume Party and Potluck Dinner, and not looking forward to the trick-or-treaters, it seems like any day of the week. Gorgeous day, too.... sunny and just warm enough for long sleeves or a light sweater, depending on whether you're standing in the sun or the shade.

I told my husband that we're just going to have to re-think the holidays here. Instead of a house filled with 38 friends and neighbors, we will have to invite the close-by neighbors and just fill up the chairs around the dining room table. Ten or twelve can sit comfortably, so that's how we'll have to build the guest list. We can still have the potluck dinners, because they really turn out to be fun..... and even though the party won't be exactly the same-- do we need it to be exactly the same? That's why we moved up here, isn't it-- because we wanted everything to be different, because we wanted everything quiet and peaceful, and because we wanted to get away from the coastal hurricane zones.

So here we are.... and we've met some very nice neighbors..... so let's just be content with what we have. We will always miss everyone in Clear Lake, but the kind of party we had at the old house cannot be duplicated here in the new house. Not unless everyone back there drives up here, and that's just not going to happen. We take our memories with us wherever we go...... and we sure have a lot of those.

Yesterday's lunch with V and K was wonderful... it was nice to hear V calling out to the cats again.... and it seemed like Gracie and ShadowBaby remembered her..... and V was even able to make friends with Gatsby, the outside cat. The three of us enjoyed the lunch, the conversation, and the dessert was a special treat. -- Fresh brownies cut up into a coconut-rimmed sherbet glass, then a layer of crushed pineapple, more coconut, a scoop of Key Lime ice cream, then more coconut and pineapple, and shaved Dove chocolate on top of everything, including the dessert plate holding the sherbet cup. The colorful filled cups looked decadent, but it was a nice splurge for Halloween.

I will start taking down the Halloween decorations tomorrow or Monday. And when every last black cat, witch and pumpkin goes back into the boxes, out will come the Christmas trees and angels and Santas. I plan to have the whole house decorated for Christmas before the middle of November because my cousin R from Illinois may come down with her husband and their two young children. I've already wrapped up all the gifts for the kids, planning to let them have an early Christmas here before they leave to go home..... they can play with their gifts during the drive back to Illinois, and I don't have to worry about finding packing boxes so I can mail their gifts up to them in December. The kids will love it here... so I hope their plans work out and the four of them will be able to come visit.

I say this every year, but I will say it again.... once Halloween comes and goes, Christmas is here in a heartbeat.