The One after Halloween

Happy November! As always, every year, after Halloween is gone and November arrives, I feel like it's almost Christmastime! Poor Thanksgiving doesn't really get its fair share of attention from me.

Halloween went well though. It was a nice night at home. It was my grandma Phyllis's 76th birthday: our little Halloween witch, she calls herself. Justin and I made her orange chicken and rice with mushrooms for dinner, her favorite. (She said it was the best she'd ever tried!)So this was my first success for #58 on the list, try 4 new recipes a month.



Also, in other Halloween news, I was so excited to have real trick or treaters for the first time in my life! I've always lived in either a farmhouse or a dorm or a college apartment, and therefore never had trick or treaters. We stocked up on tons of candy, the good stuff: Reese's, Kit Kats, Hershey's, none of that off-brand stuff. And guess how many trick or treaters we had? Four, including two kids of our friends that we knew were coming. (The cutest little Tigger and bat I've ever seen!)

So Friday evening, as we were finishing cooking the orange chicken as well as baking my grandma's birthday cake, I decided to add a little extra Halloween spirit and dress up. Earlier in the month, I'd gone around to different stores trying to find a Barack Obama mask, but no luck. So, without buying anything and just using what I had at home, I decided to go another political direction with my costume, if not my vote . . .



A few other things I accomplished on my list this weekend included: watching Annie Hall (#127 on IMDb's Top 250, which is #66 on my list) and drinking a very small glass of milk (trying a food I think I don't like, #62). Annie Hall was my first experience of Woody Allen movies, and I was pretty impressed. (And I can finally give Jess back her DVD that I borrowed about 4 months ago!) As for milk . . . I'm still not crazy about it. (And my bones probably hate me for it.)

Well, I think that's all for the list and for the highlights of my weekend. This week's going to be a busy one. Justin and I are going to be doing a lot on the house this week, getting ready for my family's visit this coming weekend. I'm so excited to see Matty and Lucy!

Andddddd I'm also super excited for Election Day to begin in about 34 hours! Go rock the vote, everybody. Or Barack the vote! :-D