Images of Halloween

My sister was musing on her blog about her sometimes scrooge-like feelings toward all things Halloween. I totally sympathize, and in brief moments of costume frustration, I know where she's coming from. But most often I just love it.

As I reflected on past holidays, I too went looking for childhood pictures in my own old photo albums, and funnily enough, the only one I could find was the same Halloween that my sister posted a picture of. However, my picture is of the two of us, in grainy 1970 colour, grinning under lots of black make-up...

What fun days those were...I still remember the keen excitement of running from house to house in the dark, surrounded by crowds of other children (there seemed to be so many more in those days). And then arriving home, sometimes cold but just delighted to rummage and sort through all our sweet loot.

So, though the mom work of preparing for Halloween can drive me to distraction, and though my children's choices of costume sometimes leave me baffled, I can't help thinking back to the feelings of absolute joy as Halloween night approached.

Here are the images of the dynamic duo enjoying Halloween 2009...to be honest I wish I could run from house to house right along with them, instead of doing the responsible mom thing and trail with the other parents along the sidewalk.

I was somewhat surprised that Cassidy chose to be a princess for school celebrations yesterday. Loved it though!

Proud of her pumpkin design!

Bryanna was determined to be a fat pirate this year. A fat pirate??? Even though we put together this cool outfit (I even sewed the eye patch!), she wanted to stuff her shirt with a cushion for the school monster mash. I didn't get it, but went along. Turns out that what she had in her head was Smee from Peter Pan...and as it turned out that the cushion didn't really transform the outfit into the red and striped round pirate image in her head, I was just as happy that she went back to the cool, swashbuckling style tonight.

Silver braid and all...

Costume two for Miz C...the happy cowgirl...

Fueling up for the big event...

A check of make-up and off we go...

After 15 minutes, the winter coats were on...

And zipped...


Keeping warm...

The big girls stop at home to warm up and pet Charlie Brown, then they headed back out with another mom.

At the end of the evening, Bryanna headed to a sleep-over and Cassidy sorted her piles of candy. Wow...another Halloween has passed in the blink of an eye. *sigh*

Hope you all had a happy Halloween too!

We give thanks...

It was a lovely day to celebrate with family and give thanks for all our blessings.

New outfits, heading off to church.

Church began our thanksgiving celebration and there was an added poignancy this year as all the children brought fresh food to St. Matthew's. With arms full of carrots and apples, squashes and potatoes, pomegranates and turnips, they processed to the front of the church and placed their offerings at the altar. The food was blessed and was delivered to the Daily Bread Foodbank today. Really helped bring home how very much we have and are thankful for.

After some quiet time at home, nanny and papa arrived and we headed off to the Aberfoyle Mill near Guelph. Our family tradition for the last 10 years or so has been to go out for Thanksgiving dinner and we have visited inns and mills all over the place - first up near our cottage in Orillia, and in recent years closer to home. This year we returned to the Aberfoyle Mill which we hadn't been to in over 20 years. What a wonderful treat - lovely pond out back that we explored a bit...

And then inside to the cozy mill restaurant filled with antiques and the orginal mill works still in place... kind of a nice link to the past and the local farmers who had brought their harvests of grains to the mill for many decades.

The dinner itself was phenomenal and though the Thompsons all stuck with tradition and enjoyed a three course turkey feast with all the trimmings, we cannot wait to return and try some of the other gourmet treats on the menu.

We were SO full at the end that dessert was really unnecessary but we just had to try the chocolate mousse and spiced pumpkin cheesecake.

Cassidy overjoyed at the first taste of her chocolate dessert.

Happy thanksgiving to our family here and in the States (who will celebrate in a few weeks themselves) and to all our friends. We are blessed to have YOU in our lives.

Flexi-girls!

Just a few photos of the dynamic duo displaying their gymnastic prowess. Mostly for Miz S. who loves this stuff. ;-)

We see the moon...

The Chinese Autumn Moon Festival was in our minds all week as we planned for and then made moon cakes on Thursday - to deliver as gifts to the girls' teachers and for us to enjoy all weekend. I shopped for our celebratory feast for tonight (okay, it was roast beef instead of Chinese food, but the intent is the same!) and we had a great day and evening together.

But with the rainy skies the last few days, it looked like Autumn Moon would pass by this year without our traditional moonlit walk. However, after cleaning up from dinner, we looked out the window and the girls were thrilled to see that the thunderstorm had passed and the winds had blown all the clouds away...leaving a crystal clear night sky with the glowing moon shining down.

The girls rushed to pull on their new winter jackets and grab flashlights and lanterns and off we set for the pond. We really couldn't have asked for a more perfect night to think about family members in China and California and to offer our thanks for them, even so far away.

Wishing you and yours a happy Autumn Moon!