NOOOOOOOvember

So here we are. Where you ask? November. And I pose the question, "How the hell did we get HERE?" I am fairly certain I blinked and we went from the first day of summer to the last day of summer to Halloween and now here. This sort of crappy in between time only rivaled by the period between January 2nd and April 1st.

I managed to take down all our Halloween decorations on November 1st. And I wonder, "Now what?" I don't have a wreath for this, you see. I have an Easter wreath, a Fourth of July wreath, a Halloween wreath and a lovely Christmas wreath. I have nothing for this time, so I have two choices - I can leave my front door bare or plunge in headfirst and be like the aisles of every major retailer. You know what I am talking about - the way the Christmas decorations slowly creep in before even half of the general population has bought their Halloween costumes. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas. I like the decorations, the festivities, the music, the baking, the catalogs and the palpable excitement within a family with 5 kids. But I just feel like I'm jumping the gun by breaking out the decorations. I'm aware Thanksgiving comes between Halloween and Christmas. I am. But I refuse to buy "harvest" decor no matter how thankful I am. And for the record, you will NEVER see the Johnson yard adorned with an inflatable turkey. So I guess the door will stay bare. I'm just warning you to not be offended by my lack of decorations, okay?

Since I'm not ready to move forward in the season just yet, I'll move backwards a bit and tell you about our Halloween. All in all, really good. Let's just say Halloween can be a bit scary (pun intended) when you're committed to certain dietary standards. I know some people think I'm nuts, but we did manage to have a festive and fun Halloween even without any candy containing any artificial ingredients. Obviously the degree of difficulty is raised here, but the kids were really good about it, and Tim was so supportive. Carter and Piper have reached the point where they know how they feel when they eat food dye, and they just won't do it. Like Tim says, "Why can't I have that kind of discipline when it comes to cheese fries or hot wings?" Finley will literally interrogate the neighbors (sorry Frank!) about whether a particular item contains dye. Trace is on the fence. He'd eat it if no one was looking, but will (begrudgingly) toss it in exchange for another "approved" candy item.

The kids' costumes were a hit this year. They were respectively, a cave girl (thanks to Nana's handiwork,) a pioneer, a dinosaur, a kitty cat and a caterpillar. Trick-or-treating didn't last very long thanks to the wind and cold, but we made up for it with a fun Halloween party the same night.