Anything can happen on Halloween, your hands could turn into burritos.

(The title is to be sung to the tune of this song from "The Worst Witch." Oh the childhood memories. Gotta love those special effects.)

To begin I want to say that I think we are in the clear as far as the mothball smell. I think I caught it early enough. I believe all our clothes smell very fresh from their day in the sun and air. And if there's any lingering smell around here, it's the dryer sheets I placed everywhere. I also think the charcoal did a great job, and we're back to the musty smelling closets we had before, which I'll take any day over the mothballs. Phew! I thought we were goners. (And it doesn't look like nearly as many clothes when their in my little closet, okay!)

The Halloween fun was kicked off with a birthday party Molly threw for her one year old Nathan a couple weeks ago. It really got me in the Halloween spirit seeing all the kids dressed up and playing games. I told Molly that if she didn't have plans for the cake, I'd be happy to make one. I knew she's go above and beyond with the games and food, so I thought It would take a load off. And I wanted an excuse to make a pumpkin bundt again (this is the one I use and I love it). It was such a fun party for everyone and I was so happy to be invited to celebrate with Nathan.


Then of course we had our ward Halloween party/trunk-or-treat last Wednesday. It was, again, fun to see all the kids so giddy in their imaginative costumes. And a lot of adults got into this one too. Even in our tiny ward we had two McCain/Palin couples. One couple was supporting, and the other was opposed. The opposed couple's daughter was dressed like a little devil and I made a joke that she was Barack Obama. They had a good laugh. Good thing because as the time, I didn't know they were pro-O. (She is one of my friends so we can joke around like that.) Anyway, we also had some people donned in Russian gear so we had fun with Sarah Palin being buddy buddy with the Russians. That was funny too, but enough politics. KC and I just threw some costumes together last minute. I was a Hawaiian tourist, and KC was...can you guess? If you can't see, he has plastic knives stuck into cereal boxes making him a cereal killer. Yikes! I wasn't sure if that was church approved, but he got the idea from his friend Burke years ago and wanted to use it. He didn't put on his costume until trick-or-treating time, so I guess he found someones hat in the meantime. Each of the organizations were in charge of an activity. We, the YW, did a caramel apple station that went over really well. And thanks to Christina's suggestion, the EQ did donuts on a string. There were some other games going on, but I was oblivious to most of my surroundings making sure all was well in my responsibilities. Well, I did notice the bishopric target practice. That was funny. It was f-f-freezing outside so we decided to have the kids trick-or-treat in the classrooms around the church. We all went in a classroom and it worked great.

And on the very day of Halloween, I enjoyed the various costume and themes of many morning show hosts while I dealt with the previously mentioned disaster. Later we decided to take Chipotle up on their offer: Dress up like a burrito on Halloween and get one free. Really it meant put tin foil anywhere on your body (even as small as a ring) and you're in. The Millers were all about it. I knew there would be a long line, which I hate, so we thought we'd do the drive by and if it looked bad, we'd skip it, or try one with less foot traffic. But when we got there Andrew was pretty far up in the line and we hopped in. 2o minutes later we all had hot, custom made, delicious, free burritos. KC and I usually share one because as you know, they are HUGE, so this was quite a treat for us to have our own at no cost. Though, I still saved half of mine for lunch today and it was still so good. I made a nifty belt thing, and KC wanted to be burrito hands. That guy. He even made me open his door and drive since he couldn't with his burrito hands. He was really getting into character. The employees laughed because he asked if he could trade on of his for one of theirs. They probably needed a little humor with a night like that. I was kicking myself for not thinking to bring our space blankets. It would've been perfect. Oh man, that line of tin-foil covered people stayed long for quite some time. I wonder how they could give away so much food. It was nuts. We'll see if they do it next year (then we can use the space blankets). I'm telling you, there were a lot of people. Anyway, we ate at the Miller's, being entertained by the Nathan boy, and enjoyed some caramel apple leftovers. We also watched Lady in the Water, by one of my favorite Directors M. Night Shyamalan. Molly doesn't like scary so I thought this one was a good balance between eerie and exciting for Halloween.

So that was that and Halloween is over. November is here and wonderful. The weather is simply gorgeous in the mid 60s and the holidays are rapidly arriving. Oh, this time of year always comes and goes too quickly. I'm really going to try and enjoy each day. But it's also okay when it's over because we have a fun vacation planned for January. I highly recommend having something to look forward to after the holidays. It takes the sting off a bit. More on that to come.