November has arrived with its usual flurry of gatherings and holiday preparations, hence the failure to write an update post last weekend. Halloween was a blast and there’s just so much going on with extended family and band family that I’m being kept happily absorbed in juggling all the balls in the air. I’m actually writing this post from my grandmother’s house while I stay with her for a while to help care for her.
Halloween
I’ve never been much of a Halloween person; I don’t think I’ve worn a costume since I was in high school, but this year I wanted to do a little bit more. I made ghost ravioli one night, which was appreciated by the Brooketopians. And, completely due to me being on the Ward Activities Committee and having to be at the Church Halloween Harvest Party, I put together a couple’s costume for Michael and myself: Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf:
Umm, we were ADORABLE. I was too busy with last-minute prep for the Harvest Party to help him with his face makeup, so that didn’t happen. (In future years, though, I really should just ask Rachel if she’ll help with that!) Rachel went as a witch and she manned the face painting booth at the party. I overheard a little girl telling her parents that it was the BEST Halloween party she’d ever been to because there was face painting and IT WAS FREE. Oh, my heart.
There was an indoor Trunk-or-Treat, because this is Washington and we are sick of being rained on in the parking lot, so Michael and I manned a classroom and handed out candy at that as well. Michael is such a softie; while we were at Costco the weekend before he saw the boxes of full-sized chocolate bars and, with a glint in his eye, asked if maybe we should hand out full-sized chocolate bars at the church party? I laughed and said it was a great idea.
Weird observation: Kids these days are not interested in Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. We ran out of Kit Kats first, then the regular ol’ Hershey’s chocolate bars, then the Hershey’s with Almonds, and then we had leftovers of the Reese’s! Cuh-RAZY. But good for me because they’re my favorite. Oh no! Children were happy and I had a pocketful of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups afterwards! The horrors!
Our Ward Harvest Party is also our Chili Cook-off Competition, so I made up an apron for it and it turned out really good! We announced the winner while the Trunk-or-Treating was going on, so a lot of people were not in the Cultural Hall when that happened. But you could tell that people cared A LOT about winning the competition because they were asking for the rest of the evening if it had been announced.
I need to make a note to myself to make sure to announce the end of voting, and actually award the apron BEFORE the Trunk-or-Treating begins so that more people can be in the room to cheer for the winner. It was our first time as a committee doing this, so little stuff like this wasn’t thought of beforehand—you don’t know what you don’t know until you know it, right? I always say it takes about three years to get any sort of organization or function running smoothly. Give a lot of grace in the first two years, especially in the first!
The Church Harvest Party was the Friday ahead of Halloween, so on actual Halloween we were pretty chill. Michael, Ren and I sat on the front porch in our PJs and handed out candy to the hordes. I love handing out candy to the kids that come through! A big group of moms of littles in our ward(-ish) boundaries came through with their broods and it was so delightful to open the door and see all those happy little familiar faces, bouncing up and down with excitement together. As the night goes on it becomes more of a teen scene, so I then get to see the kids I work with and it’s just so darn cute to see their more creative and “it’s safe to be the authentic me because I’m not being scrutinized by my peers at school” sides. I might actually steal curate one of the costume ideas I saw and use it for Michael and myself next year.
Cross Country
Nathaniel’s Cross Country season is officially over. He set a personal record at his last race on Halloween! 3.1 miles in 17 minutes and 46 seconds! Yay! Unfortunately, it wasn’t fast enough to qualify for State, but it’s fine. He was very happy with the PR and perhaps next year he’ll qualify for State. I do love that about Cross Country—you’re really only racing against yourself. Of course, it’s always nice to be overall winner of the race, but it really just matters if you’re improving over your last time.
A fun little bonus: Because his last race was on Halloween, I made him a little gingerbread-esque sweatband to wear so he could go around saying, “Run, run, as fast as you can, you can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread Man!” Gone are the days of making costumes for my little ones, so I was happy to stitch up a cute little Halloween accessory for my boy. It reminded me of when he’d be so giggly and jumpy to see the next piece of a costume come off of the sewing machine. (There was not giggling and jumping this time, though; he’s sixteen. Too old for that sort of thing.)
Planning Meetings for December
This last week was a blur of planning meetings for various organizations’ holiday events. The Ward Christmas Party, the band’s Evening of Jazz silent auction fundraiser, so many Church Christmas music requests, etc. It’s time for the ol’ holiday razzle dazzle, y’all!
Gingerbread Love Socks
I abandoned Project Snickerdoodle because it wasn’t going to work out and I didn’t want the added stress, but I still need a knitting project for my own sanity, so I decided to grant myself the gift of starting a darling pattern that I noticed last year: The Gingerbread Love Socks, by DROPS Design. FAIR ISLE GINGERBREAD MEN, PEOPLE!! Of course I HAD TO. I have them with me now while I’m sitting with my grandmother and it’s been so nice to work on them while chatting with her and watching Hallmark Christmas Movies together. #idyllic
I will not make it a goal to get these finished by Christmas; these are purely for enjoyment’s sake. Also…there’s a matching “Cookie Parade” sweater pattern…and my heart wants that sweater.
You know what? You should all take a moment to look through DROPS Design’s Christmas pattern collection, it’s impressive and inspiring! So many cute things to make! The kid sweaters! Oh, my future grandbabies will be well-clothed in Christmas cheer when the time comes for that!
And in the meantime, I think I spy a few Christmas sweaters that I might need to make for myself as well. You know, for morale…
