Spooky Spotlight

Here! Have a cracker!
I'm on a diet!











For most folks, it's something lurking right around the corner. For us, its been in full bloom for several weeks! Packed back to back with cookie baking, book browsing, costume creating, and hearty partying, our Halloween season is a cherished friend, one whose return we embrace with the unbridled vigor of a headless horseman!

Family joins me for a mid-month Friday evening gathering each year, where crafting and cookie baking typically top the agenda. At other times we just play games after dinner - like the Spooky Picture Bingo we enjoyed this time around. "Mummies" and daddies win cash, and kids win small Halloween toys - every "ghoul" and boy goes home happy!

By the way, if seating all those spooky little spirits for food and festivity confounds you, solve that problem with a 29" x 60" folding table - the kind sold at every household store. Top it with a 2.5 yard length of 45" fabric - a time and money saving shortcut. My own choice - a black and white clearance length - was a $9 bargain. And, I spotted a cute turkey print on my way out the door, so I'll be trotting back for that one, too!
















Table settings respect the fact that some guests come to eat, and other come to play! I'm ready for both. Each place presents with a cute skellie English cracker - one needing mom or dad to firmly grasp the opposite end, briskly pulling in tandem to yield a loud "SNAP!" and a tumble of toys. This time we found Halloween tattoos, paper party crowns, and cute jokes that regaled the crowd. (Why did the skeleton cross the road? To get to the body shop!)

Weird little wind-up Halloween characters kept the kids' table lively, too, toddling about mindlessly while guests were "goblin" up home made mac and cheese and Jello (orange, of course! with a generous dollop of ghostly white whipping cream!).

See those cute cardboard houses? Dollar Tree finds served as suitable places to stash bingo prizes for the trip home. And...if you dared reach inside, you may or may not
(👵grandma humor!) have pulled out a super squishy, slimy toy rat and a fancy light up necklace tucked inside!

Oh, these too! Dancing skellie straws - another Dollar Tree goodie that made sipping chilled apple cider an even tastier experience!





















To commemorate an evening of good eating, fun playing, and great gathering, a cousin round up photo was in order. It's unnecessary for any grandma of more than - say, three? - to comment that there will always be a group comedian (see below, far right, front!) and at least one attempted escape! I had both. But this capture, all clad in grandma's gift of matching ghostly pjs, is the best of over 50 shots. It will serve as my personal "Happy Halloween" greeting to all of you because this grandma thinks they're so cute it's scary!

The skinny guy at extreme right, back, finds it bone rattlin' hilarious that I even try getting this little six pack to look up and smile at the same time!