Little Halloween this Friday.

[Andybev01]

I almost missed this one, but an insta- post reminded me that Friday the thirteenth is in four days!

Our weather is turning from upper 80s today to mid 60s by Wednesday, so I'm hoping for appropriately spooky vibes on Friday.

[Murfreesboro]

Ah, yes!

We are already knee-deep in Halloween movies around here. My husband recently ordered the first season of Scream Queens, which we've been enjoying. I've started pulling out lots of old chestnuts, too, like Halloween and Amityville Horror.

Our church is having a random apple dinner this coming Sunday. Pot luck, but everything we bring has to use apples. I'm planning to make my apple pumpkin bread.

I've put out some autumn decorations, but nothing Halloweenish yet.

[Andybev01]

I watched Beetlejuice last weekend, and have been sampling Halloween tv episodes from a compilation DVD I picked up for a couple of $$.

I'm also switching out fake greenery for the fall stuff.

[Murfreesboro]

So beautiful! I finally saw apple cider at our Kroger this week. There is also one bin of various winter squashes, but no pumpkins yet.

[Murfreesboro]

A friend of mine in VA sent me her copy of the UVA alumni magazine. Its feature story is about paranormal activity on that campus. I got it a few days ago but I saved it to read today, Little Halloween. Fun stuff!

[MauEvig]

Happy Little Halloween!
We went to see Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and I really enjoyed it!
The local garden center and Walmart has pumpkins. I'm seeing the hardy mums out too.
Leaves are starting to turn here and the mornings have been colder, we're getting more fall weather now.

[Murfreesboro]

I saw my first pumpkins yesterday at Kroger. They were white. Luminas, I guess? Also I spied my first apple cider there earlier this week. And the mums have been out for a couple of weeks.

Fall weather is tricky in these parts. We had the most gloriously fine weekend last week, the kind that comes along once every few years. And we had a stretch of cool weather in late August for 4-5 days. But it will go back and forth for weeks. I can count on starting October in summer clothes, but switching to jackets by Halloween. October begins in summer and ends in the fall.

[Andybev01]

Yes, the time of year when the car fills up with costs and sweaters because the day got too warm.

[Murfreesboro]

They finally got some orange pumpkins in at my Kroger. These are all warty, fascinating to look at, but not really the carving kind.

[Andybev01]

Those can be carved but the look isn't what I like.

The flat deeply grooved 'Cinderella' variety are for decoration only.

I did manage to make s JOL out of one but the rind and flesh are very, very tough, like wood, and I broke a knife blade in my attempt.

[Murfreesboro]

In the past I've found the white ones harder to carve than the orange ones. The white ones have a thicker rind, I think, but they are good for skull patterns.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

I just wanted to remind everybody that Little Halloween is coming up this Friday, because we are in the Christmas season we won't be going out, but we will be having a small pizza party here for the kids and some of their friends, so they will probably dress up and watch some movies. I hope everybody here has some fun.

[Andybev01]

I plan on watching Nightmare Before Christmas and munching on a tin of butter cookies.

I'll be helping my brother and his wife decorate their tree, or by new years it would just be a bush with lights on it.

[Murfreesboro]

Yes, I'd thought of it. Also, it's St Lucia Day, a big deal in Scandinavia. I think it's the kick off to their Christmas celebration. I read recently that St Lucia Day is not literally the longest night of the year, but it is the day with the earliest sunset, so people used to think of it as the shortest day and longest night. A big festival of light in the far north.

My tree isn't up yet, so I'll probably do that this weekend. I got some new ornaments for it at the Chicago Christmas Market last Saturday. Also, my son and I went to a theatrical performance of Christmas Carol, so we got some spookiness into our Christmas season already. Otherwise we spent several hours at the Museum of Science and Industry near his apartment. Among other attractions, they had a great many Christmas trees decorated to represent many different countries.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

We already have NBC on the list of movies that we are watching on that day, but Andy just gave me a good idea with his snowman craft project. I think that the kids would have fun making them so I'm going to go to Michaels tomorrow to get the supplies we need for them, they could make them NBC inspired, or traditional, I'll leave it up to the kids to decorate them how they want to.

On Sat. the same group of kids will be going with us to our local Santa Claus parade, they announced earlier this year that this night be the last year they are going to be doing it because of the rising cost to put the show on, as well as lower attendance numbers every year, so we will be there in case it is the last parade and hopefully the kids will have some festive fun.