Time for the 4th annual church Halloween party, Spooks-n-Beans! Who would ever have guessed that Troy and I would start to enjoy wearing costumes? For most of our married life we both really disliked it. Not something I expected of myself, the theater kid, but it's true. I really disliked dressing up. Then Troy found himself working for a man who threw a massive Halloween party and HAD to go and HAD to dress up. It was then that we discovered that it's actually so delightful to find couples costumes like those from Raising Arizona, Ferris Bueller, and PBS television. This year I had very little time to create costumes so I went to the great and spacious online retailer, Amazon, and picked out an inexpensive but remarkably effective Mary Poppins costume. And with the addition of my beloved dad's beloved flat cap (aka old-man cap), it was easy to turn Troy into Bert. I'm glad we have an event to dress up for every year because we've really had fun with it.
Emma dressed as a hobbit, and Romney as the dead mascot dog from Ted Lasso.
Ok time for me to reveal my extremely prideful nature. This is embarrassing. I help with the organization of the chili cook off portion of the party each year. And each year I make the same fantastic white-bean chili with this yummy tomato vinaigrette dressing that you dribble on top. And every year it's one of the top chilies. And most years I don't count myself in the winning tallies because it seems weird to win the thing I'm in charge of. Last year I decided to just let the votes be counted as is and take what I got. I actually won first place and learned that it is indeed horrifying to be the person who purchases the prizes and then get one of them. I felt so stupid. And really I can't take any credit at all for the recipe - I got it from my sister-in-law who could basically win any cooking contest she wanted. So this year, I made myself make a different chili. I went with what I thought would be the most amazing beef chili ever. I used chuck roast, not ground beef. I made the broth out of birria sauce. If you don't know what that is, go get birria tacos right now. You simmer all sorts of dried chilis and spices and tomatoes together then blend it until it's smooth and just magnificently rich and delicious. I sauteed vegetables, I added little touches. It was so delicious. And it took about 7th place. I had to laugh at myself for thinking I'd still get a top vote, even though I planned to not tell anyone. Not necessary! I'm so silly.
Halloween itself was very quiet - each of our kids made plans and took off with friends. Again, it's how it should be. So Troy and I sat and watched Ghostbusters while I worked on making Christmas ornaments. (I had to start extra early this year.) We bought one bag of candy since last year we did get a handful of trick-or-treaters. This year, not one single child showed up at our door for treats. We did get a visit from two adorable couples in our neighborhood who like to walk around on Halloween night to see all the cute kids in the costumes. Our street was very disappointing for them, but we did send them out with most of our candy. So cute.
I also have to include this - at Primary Children's Hospital there is a pumpkin decorating contest that gets displayed in the main hallway. Obviously the Over the Garden Wall creation was my favorite, and the department who put this one together did an amazing job:
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