 The frost is on the pumpkin so it's time to get out some costumes, collect falling leaves, celebrate Columbus Day, and watch out for those ghosts and goblins like: "if only," and "I shoulda" and "poor me." A PRAYER FOR SERENITY GOD GRANT ME THE SERENITY TO ACCEPT THE THINGS I CANNOT CHANGE. THE COURAGE TO CHANGE THE THINGS I CAN, AND THE WISDOM TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE. Why Me, Lord? With the leaves falling and the sky gray and a very busy fall schedule, have you had a few "poor me" days? How about taking a jar or box and labeling it "Poor Me." Every time you have one of those dreary days, put a dollar in the jar. When you have a tidy sum, you can reward yourself with a treat or you could brighten someone else's day by using the money to buy a gift or give a donation to a worthy cause. Either way, the "Poor Me" box will give you something to look forward to. The Posture of Forgiving. Confucius said: "To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it." Let go of all those "wrongs" you've been carrying around and your daily load will be much lighter. Without all that weight, you can hold your shoulders up straight, march forth with hope, and look much younger and thinner. Bundt-kin Surprise. For a pumpkin dessert, simply make a Bundt cake according to package directions. Tint white canned frosting with a mix of red and yellow food coloring until it is bright orange. Frost the cake, then stick a piece of green construction paper in the middle for a stem and you have a Bundt-kin dessert. Noble Name Dropping. Some kids like nicknames and some don't. So try making up a virtuous name that fits each kid and see if they go over: Bill the Brave, Grace the Gleeful, Tom the Truthful, Harry the Honest, Sara the Sincere. Scary Suckers. Show the kids how to make a ghost for your guests. Start with a round, paper-wrapped, "head-shaped" lollipop. Cover it with a white paper napkin or tissue. Tie around the "neck" with black or orange yarn. Draw on a ghostly face with a black magic marker. Be Really Ghoulish. During October, give the kids a ghoulish giggle by asking them to help you dream up a dinner of "body" parts: ears of corn, finger sandwiches, hearts of palm, elbow macaroni, arm roast or eye of round, leg of lamb, tomaTOES! This will be a dinner they will remember and tell their friends about. They may even want to invite friends to share it. If your family has a strong stomach, you could also buy some plastic spiders and "swim" them in cups of cold apple SIDEr. Or you could put a candy GUMmy worm on each plate. The bridges you cross before you come to them are usually over rivers that aren't there. SPEAKING OF TRAVELING Kids love secrets and mysteries. So turn your family into a secret society. Once a month, or whenever possible, suddenly announce that it's time for a mystery trip to a secret destination. No matter how much they beg, don't tell anyone where you are going until you get there. Just announce the time of departure. Sometimes it can be somewhere special, sometimes somewhere silly. If you can latch on to some cheap tickets, it could be a trip to the circus or a professional ballgame or a new movie. Another time, it could just be a trip to an ice-cream store for a cone or to a variety store or a hardware store where the kids get a dollar each to spend and thirty minutes to shop on their own. Or it could be a trip to Grandma's house or to visit a favorite friend. The destination will depend on the likes and dislikes of your own family. If you have a family with lots of dissimilar likes, you might want to only take one child at a time on an individualized mystery trip. Just be sure that each child--and each spouse--gets a turn. Always on the way home from mystery outings, tell the children to join in an out-loud Our Father in thanksgiving for having such mysterious and wonderful parents. Pumpkin Pizza Too! Buy a plain cheese pizza, a package of sliced pepperoni, and a green pepper. Before you bake the pizza, get the kids to help add a jack-o'-lantern face with the pepperoni slices. Cut some pepperoni pieces into triangles for the eyes and nose. Zigzag some for the mouth. Use strips of greenpepper for eyebrows and hair. Use leftover pepperoni to make a circle around the outside edge of the pizza. Bake as directed. A Hair-raising Idea. To add excitement to a Halloween costume, here's a way to make your hair stand on end! Empty several packages of unflavored gelatin into a small saucepan. Add a little cold water, and stir over medium heat until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Let the mixture cool to just warm, and use it to coat portions of hair, shaping it to stand straight up, swirl into huge loops. The hair will keep its shape when the gelatin dries. Petite Pumpkin Dessert. At this time of year you often see tiny pumpkins for sale for decorating. Buy one (about 3 inches in diameter) for each family member. Pierce the bottom of each pumpkin with a knife in three or four places. Microwave on high for 6 or 7 minutes or just until tender when pierced with a fork or gently squeezed. Cool. Slice off the top and scoop out the seeds to make a shell. Put a scoop of ice cream in each and top with caramel syrup. WE'VE CREATED A MONSTER! Halloween has always been great fun for the kids but it's getting more and more popular with adults too. To keep in the spirit of things, you must decorate your house, dream up great costumes, have a party, and enjoy! And yes, you can do that. First, to save cut fingers, instead of carving a pumpkin, draw the outline of the kind of pumpkin face the kids like. Use a pencil to do this. It's a lot easier to make changes than with a knife. Once you decide on the design for the jack-o'-lantern, draw it on with permanent magic markers. An uncut pumpkin also stays fresh longer. For indoor jacko'-lanterns, add strips of colored tissue paper for hair, paper circles for eyes, and a large pushpin for a nose. Look through your "bits and pieces," and make up some costumes or, if the kids insist, buy some inexpensive ones. But the homemade kind are more fun. If the kids go out trick-or-treating, you won't need to have a party for them; that will be fun enough. But you could have a party on the Saturday before Halloween for your silly adult friends. Invite them for a trick-or-treat dinner. If they want to come in costumes, that's great. If not, that's okay too. Plan a simple menu: store-bought lasagna, green salad, green peas, rolls, dessert, and coffee. Get a friend to help you "serve," and both dress as waitresses. When the guests arrive, serve snacks and drinks. While they are snacking, pass out "menus" for dinner and let them order six items. The "trick" is that the menu will be in code. If they order Coffin Splinters, Ocean Spray, Jolly Green Ghouls, Skeleton's Coverup, Devil's Staff, and Pregnant Pumpkin's Desire, their dinner will consist of toothpicks, salt, green peas, a napkin, a fork, and a pickle! Someone else might get lasagna and a salad but no fork. After everyone has a good laugh at what they ordered, bring out the rest of the food, and let them help themselves. This sounds silly but it's easy to do and lots of fun.
Trick or Treat Menu If you do not want the kids to go out for the traditional trick-or-treating, you could get together with three or four other families and have a progressive party. At the first house, the kids arrive all excited and you take pictures or use the video recorder to film them in costume. Have a few snacks and a warm punch (cranberry and apple juice warmed with some cloves and a cinnamon stick). As you leave, the kids get treats for their goodie bags. At the next house, you get mugs of hot soup (made from canned or packaged soup) and salad. As you leave, the kids get goodies from this host and hostess too. At the next house, you have ready-made deli sandwiches or pizza, and maybe bob for apples or play a game. Again, the kids get treats at the end. At the last house you have dessert and coffee, more treats for the kids, and then head for home. So what about the religious feast? It's hard to talk about religion in the midst of all the Halloween festivity, so earlier in the month, have a pumpkin dinner, and use this family time to talk about Halloween being All Hallows Eve--the night before All Saints' Day You might talk about each person's name saint and even suggest that the children dress up as a saint. Some Catholic schools have an All Saints' Mass where the children come dressed as their favorite saint. It's fun to see all the "bathrobed" and "sandaled" saints, all the little "Marys" dressed in blue with white veils carrying a baby doll "Jesus," and all the bishops with cardboard bishop hats. NOW ABOUT THAT PUMPKIN DINNER Since you won't have to carve out a jack-o'-lantern for the pumpkin dinner, scoop out a small or medium-sized pumpkin for dinner to use as a serving dish. Cut off the top of the pumpkin and thoroughly clean out all the seeds. Then use it as a soup tureen. Just fix your family's favorite soup and pour it in. Add the top, sit it on the middle of the table, and supper's ready. Or fill the empty pumpkin with ready-made or homemade beef stew. Or mix up your favorite glop: browned ground beef, macaroni or rice, tomato sauce, onions, garlic, green pepper, or whatever your family likes mixed together. Spoon it into the pumpkin shell and replace the top. Put the pumpkin on a foil-lined baking sheet or pan, and be sure to add a bit of water in the bottom of the pan. Bake in a preheated 350 degrees oven for about one hour or until the pumpkin insides get soft. Don't bake too long or the pumpkin will fall apart. Use hot pads to remove the pumpkin to a serving plate and won't everyone be surprised! 
|
