Good-bye October, Hello November!

Well, another Halloween season has come and gone. Is it just me, or is this year flying by? I hope you all had a great Halloween Holiday. Mine was very good. We started ours this past Saturday. I took my two girls out on the back deck to gut…I mean, carve the pumpkins that we plucked from the local pumpkin patch. The jack o lanterns turned out great and I must admit that I found it quite amusing to see my very girly youngest daughter; shoulder deep inside the pumpkin, enthusiastically ripping the entrails out. We tried to get my, very soon to be, stepson involved in the action but the sight of the pumpkin innards caused him to start gagging. My wonderful fiancé further enhanced the Halloween spirit by roasting the very pumpkin seeds that were harvested from our jack o lanterns. (Unfortunately, I believe she seasoned the seeds with crack instead of salt because I ended up eating half my weight in pumpkin seeds. Despite the havoc the seeds wreaked on my digestive system, I still couldn’t stay out of them on Sunday. I figured that I would remedy my problem by taking the remaining seeds to work to share with my co-workers. Needless to say, the bag of seeds ended up in front of me and I polished them off in about 5 minutes flat. I think I have developed some sort of addiction because I found myself checking all of the jack o lanterns on my street for remnants of seeds this morning.) Okay…back to the Halloween events…We got the kids all dressed up in their costumes and took them to the community center for the fall festival. It was sort of lame in my book, they only had a few games and attractions for the kids, but they had fun none the less. Last night was spent with a brief trick or treating session on our street before we went to, yet another, Halloween festival; where my eldest daughter won some stuffed animals (yeah…we didn’t have enough already). On our way home from the festival my eldest daughter expressed a desire to do some more trick or treating. I was reluctant and seriously considering playing the “it’s been a long day and I’m tired from work” card, but I toughed it out. I’m so glad that I did. While we were walking and talking in the brisk autumn air, a thought occurred to me. My daughter is 12 and she still likes hanging out with her dad, but I know the days are numbered. Hell, next year she might not even want to go trick or treating, let alone, have her dad taking her house to house. I enjoyed her company and hoped the evening would be a happy memory for her some day. But, the point is, I almost missed that opportunity. I’ll be sure to remain vigilant for future ones.
Good bye October. I’m very excited about November. I’m getting married in 10 days followed by a weeklong honeymoon. Then we have Thanksgiving to look forward to. Yes, November looks to be a great month.