Happy Halloween

 I'm not even going to mention that it's been over 6 weeks since I've last posted to the blog...We can all count and it just embarasses me to think about it.

Today is Halloween.  This day used to be frought with making sure our son had his costume and was going to be going out to trick-or-treat safely, making sure we had enough candy for the hordes, and making sure we had enough candy left over to reward us for all of the things I just mentioned.  For the last 17 years, we've not had to do any of that.  We live so far out in the country that the trick-or-treaters just don't appear.  Of course, that also means I have no legitimate excuse for buying excess candy - or candy at all!  Usually, I buy one bag of candy - making sure it's a favorite of mine - just in case someone gets lost down the gravel road and shows up.  It has never happened yet, but you never know.  

We used to have all the single sailors working with John come to our house for Halloween movies and pizza.  Their 'ticket' to the party was a bag of Halloween candy.  Most of them just loved to hand out the candy at our front door and see all the costumes - since they mostly lived in barracks, they didn't get trick-or-treaters.  I recall our last year before John retired, we had 15 sailors come for pizza and movies...each brought at least one bag of candy.  We lived in military housing that year so there were a LOT of children - A LOT!  I had bought about 5 bags of candy and with the 15 sailors bringing at least one bag, we figured we had enough. NOT.  I ended up sending a couple of the crew out to find a store to get more candy.  It was always my habit to keep a tick list of how many Trick-or-Treaters we had each year and I stopped marking the paper that year after kid #851....you read that right.....over 800 children came to our house that year.   Those sailors had so much fun handing out candy and I only needed to put pizza into the over to feed my helpers!  I don't think anyone even stopped to watch the movie that year....they were all watching out the door and on the front porch/patio to see all the kids.  And not one child - not ONE child - was rude or snotty or hateful....not one.  They ranged in age from tiny (carried in mom or dad's arms) to tall teens.  They were all polite and said thank you and were delightful to treat on Halloween. I sincerely doubt that is the case these days.  

I read this morning that Sir Sean Connery passed away overnight.  That just makes me sad.  I mean, James Bond!  I read a condolence on Facebook that said, "One ping, Vasily, Just one ping!"  That was a classic line from The Hunt for Red October.  I love that movie!  He was 90 years old.  A true Hollywood Movie Star.  Blessings to his family.  

The election is this coming Tuesday.  Regardless of the outcome, I hope people can accept it and get on with making this country stronger and respectable again.  We have become a laughing stock throughout the world and that's just humiliating.  And if the folks in Washington don't start working together for the good of the people, it's going to get worse.  And that's all I'm going to say about the political arena in the good ol' USA.

It's almost time for this little guy to make his annual appearance.  Given the current situation around the world, this made me smile.

As some of you might recall, our oldest granddaughter got married in early September.  She called me and asked me to make a Christmas stocking for her new husband like I'd done for all of the grands.  Of course, I said I'd do it.  Not a lot one won't do for a grandchild, is there?  I found a wonderful one that fit Trent perfectly.  He is an outdoorsman through and through.  So Outdoor Santa was very fitting.

After I finished his, I started another for my stash of stockings to decorate for the holidays.  Here it is.  It only had 38 pieces and took me 4 days to complete.  

Hoping to have less days between this posting and the next.  Fingers crossed!  

Thanks for stopping by.