It was a festive weekend around these parts. Costumes were worn. Pumpkins were carved. Cookies were baked.
Our neighborhood threw a Halloween festival. Some of you might meet this little tidbit with a shrug of the shoulders and a nonchalant, eh. For us, though, it was totally newsworthy. You see, we live in the desert. And by that I mean to say that we–quite literally–live in the desert. Not desert like Las Vegas with it’s flashy towering hotels and swimming pools with swim up bars. Our desert is nothing like that. Our back forty is populated with cacti and rattlers. A month or so ago there was a big hairy tarantula in my garage. You get my drift? Des-ert. So any festivities planned and executed by the HOA out here in no man’s land is worthy news.
Before the festival on Saturday, Jeff took to carving pumpkins. He was mighty successful in the endeavor, too. See?
And then on Sunday we went to the early service at church so that we could come home and have the whole day to bake cookie treats (not tricks!) for the small army of teachers, paras, therapists and bus drivers that help care for our children day in and day out. If you were here, I’d offer you one.
Tonight we’re having turkey chili from the crock pot with cheddar scallion cornbread on the side. Oh, and hot apple cider. I picked some up fresh from the orchard when Jayce’s class visited the pumpkin patch.
Life is good, friends. Happy Halloween.
PS. Do you have a Halloween dinner tradition? Care to share it with me?
I’m just stuck on the tarantula sighting.
The pumpkins look great!!
I’m stuck on it, too. But compared to the rattlesnake we found (coiled up on our front doormat) the tarantula was rather mild. Have I mentioned that I’m not a fan of desert living?
What a great job on the pumpkins, and the cookies! Now how bout the costumes???
Everything looks just great! Happy Halloween!!
The pumpkins and cookies look great! I too would love to see the costumes!
A Halloween dinner tradition is a good idea, but dinner seems rushed with getting ready for trick-or-treating. Last night we went over to a neighbor’s house for a pre trick-or-treat party.
How do you do the icing on the cookies? They look perfect! We made pumpkin iced cookies, and Adam had a blast decorating them. They look nothing like your cookies. Good call going with the early service. We didn’t finish the cookies until yesterday, and the recipe said 1hrs 30 min start to finish (whatever!)
Wowsers! Jeff, you did a great job! Those are amazing! Glad to hear it was a fun and festive time there in the desert!
Fantastic pumpkins and cookies! We were invited to a friend’s house and she made turkey chili and cornbread. While the kids trick or treated, we talked and ate. It was very nice!
I forgot to mention at church today…Jeff DOES have crazy pumpkin-carving skills. I’m impressed.
Can’t wait to hear more about your cookie decorating technique.
P.S. For some reason, the top picture in this post isn’t loading on my computer or in my RSS feed. FYI.