I'm Thankful for Cinnamon

November 1 and 2 were both Dia de los Muertos. A friend of mine who also loves to celebrate dressed up in clothing and accessories that worked for celebrating.

 

November 1 was also National Cinnamon Day so I enjoyed some nice hot chocolate with cinnamon and whipped cream. Mmmmmm. I love cinnamon. 

November 2 was National Deviled Egg Day. Lovely lovely deviled eggs.

We had them along with enchiladas, salad, and chunks of sourdough bread. The person who taught sourdough baking for our Relief Society activity also gave us a recipe for a loaf using sourdough discard so I tried it out. 

My opinion? Not as good as the time consuming sourdough which really has that good sourdough flavor. This was just like a regular yeast bread but yay for trying things out, right?

November 2 was also Plan Your Epitaph Day. Jr. Jr. and Nichole who were in charge of treat and activity for Family Home Evening tried to pick things that fit with that and Day of the Dead.

We ended up with Chocolate Cookie Crumble Ice Cream and playing Grim Fandango. The ice cream reminded me of chocolate pudding dirt. Dirt fits with death and burial and all that jazz. And Grim Fandango... well... it's obvious how it fits.

Other Holidays Around Halloween

We didn't just celebrate Halloween on those days. Here are some other things we did.

Wednesday, October 28, Stephanie came over to make honey garlic chicken in our Instant Pots again. It's been a while. I forgot to take a picture. Oh well.

That day was Matt Smith's birthday so those of us who didn't eat honey garlic chicken for dinner had fish fingers and custard (fish sticks and vanilla pudding). 

It was also National Chocolate Day which was appropriate for our trunk or treat outing.

Thursday, October 29, was National Oatmeal Day, so I made oatmeal muffins and family members were very happy about that. 

Friday, October 30, was Frankenstein Friday. I encouraged people to get out their spook-ghetti and eyeballs and create their own monster. Jr. was the one who mentioned we were having spook-ghetti. Credit where credit's due, right? 

While we were out trick or treating on Saturday, October 31, the boys were telling each other knock knock jokes for National Knock Knock Joke Day. 

We definitely had some fun the end of October. 

Halloween Days

Jet was excited for Halloween like he is every year. He kept changing his mind about what costume he wanted to wear, though. Flowey, a robot, a pirate. We thought he'd decided on pirate then he decided his final decision was Flowey from the video game Undertale. That was Lucky's costume a couple years ago.

By the time Jet decided, we didn't think there was time to remake the whole costume. Luckily, Jr. Jr. and Lucky helped me find the petals part of the costume in their closet. Unfortunately a few of the petals had fallen off. I was able to glue them back on so that was the main part. We couldn't find the face but Jeremy was nice enough to sketch an outline for me to color in on a paper plate and I stuck on a bundle of skewers taped together for a handle. Then we dressed Jet in green-ish and he had the costume he wanted. Hooray.

He had four opportunities to wear his costume, too.

We went to a trunk or treat in West Jordan on Wednesday.

The high school football team and cheerleaders put on a trunk or treat on Thursday.

Friday was celebrating Halloween at school.

Saturday was actually Halloween.

Everybody else who dressed up threw together their costumes last minute. I had been thinking about mine for a while since I was ruthless when going through crates at my parents' house this Summer but decided to keep some items. I already had the skirt but I brought back my cape and bonnet from when I was in a musical "A Christmas Carol" with our community theatre when I was in high school. Jeremy recently found a shirt he brought back from Hungary when he was there on his mission (handmade by a Hungarian there) so I was able to wear that to go along with my costume. That was the only last minute part of my costume because I had been planning the rest of it.

Jeremy dressed up as the Jack Black character from the Jumanji movies.

Jr. Jr. went as a birder.

Lucky found his costume from last year and went as Quirrel (from Hollow Knight) again. 

Thursday, I went to help tie quilts for the Humanitarian Center and one of the ladies there game me a trick or treat bag to give to Jet. He was so happy when he saw it and definitely got use out of it.

 

Friday after watching Jet at the Halloween parade at the elementary school, I went to say goodbye to Bridal Veil Falls from the viewpoint. The trail was already closed because of the recent rockslide. I didn't know if I'd get a chance on Saturday so I wanted to make sure I said goodbye before it was closed for the season.

 

It turns out Saturday was busy. I got up early and was productive. I had to take a nap at one point, though, after getting quite a bit done.

The kids and I watched Over the Garden Wall, which I had not actually scene all of before, just parts. I got through the whole thing. Yes, it was weird, and yes, it was enjoyable. It was a good Halloween movie. 

While we were watching, Jeremy made more Rokott Krumpli because people were disappointed with how fast it went when he made it recently. What a sweetheart he is.

After eating some quickly to give me energy, we met up with a couple of Jr. Jr. and Lucky's friends who went trick or treating around the neighborhood with us. That was fun because those boys always have a great time socializing when they're together. Jet knows them well, too, so it was pleasant. 

Traditionally we trick or treat for a while in our neighborhood then go visit my sister to say Hi. This year she had family things going on so we spent longer out in our neighborhood. It was fun. We went to some houses we haven't been to in the past and missed some we sometimes go to, but that's okay. We also went to some houses we try to always go to.

I do like our neighborhood.