The Grinch Who Stole Halloween

So I have now been dubbed by Alex the Halloween Grinch. I don't care for Halloween. Not sure when I decided I don't like Halloween, but I just know I don't. For example, we (Alex) handed out candy for Beggar's Night. We had one child literally take the candy from Alex and throw it back in the bowl and ask for 2 Hershey bars – 1 for him and 1 for his mom. When Alex told him "No!" he said that everyone else was giving him two pieces. Fortunately, another child came up and when the kid realized he wasn't getting more than 1 piece of candy from our house he stomped off and growled in anger. Another girl just came out and asked for 3 pieces of candy. Then you had kids who wanted a different piece of candy. The kids who had 3 bags in their hands (1 for them, 1 for their sick cousin, and 1 for their mom). And of course, no one says "Trick-or-Treat" anymore. So yeah, maybe I am the Halloween Grinch. Can you blame me?

Despite my feelings towards the holiday, I did carve a pumpkin and I even dressed up and went out to a party downtown. Notre Dame played their game during Beggar's Night so I pretty much watched that as Alex handed out the candy. My pumpkin reflected my support of the Irish.

So for Halloween my friend and neighbor Kristin and I dressed up as Wilma Flinstone and Betty Rubble. We wanted her husband and Alex to dress up as Fred and Barney. We had no success. We got lots of compliments. We turned out pretty darn cut if you ask me.

Alex dressed up as Slash from Guns and Roses. I still think it would have been better if he had dressed up as Barney. Oh well . . .

Despite my dislikes about Halloween, I had a lot of fun hanging out with great friends and Alex.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Last weekend my mom came up for a visit. I had told her last year for her birthday that I would treat her to a weekend in Chicago. Well, for a variety of reasons we decided Chicago was not ideal. I thought it would be fun to have her visit me in Minneapolis.

I had a lot of fun having her in town. We got to go out to lunch and shop and do all the things we would do together in Ohio. We even began talking about wedding plans.

We did a little bit of sightseeing. We went down by the Mississippi River to the see the St. Anthony Falls which are created by the first dam on the river. Unfortunately, the weather was less than desirable. It was rather chilly and rainy. It even snowed . . . again!

Despite all of that, we had a great time together. It was hard to see her get back on the plane to go home.