Monday, October 31, 2016

The Making of Good Memories - Firsts and Lasts

Rather than posting a quick picture or two of our Halloween and the time we spent together I have decided to leave Facebook and get back to writing about life instead. I'll admit I was tempted to put my prized possessions (my pictures) on Facebook tonight but stopped myself. Sure it would have only taken me just a few minutes as compared to writing a blog but I feel a sense of urgency to be serious about my decision for taking a break and now I can see why it is so desperately needed.

Life already goes by fast enough, why be in such a hurry to post about it on social media and in return become distracted while looking at a thousand other pictures of people you probably haven't even met when you can enjoy and relish in what you were feeling and thinking in the moment your pictures happened? Those dishes I didn't do tonight are not what I want to remember in life nor do I want to be remembered by.

So I tried my first hot apple cider with a cinnamon stick for the first time. Something as small as this is a big deal. Being 44 you don't have much "firsts" left. I don't know why I never did it before. I never thought to and growing up I never really had my cider hot. It was delicious! I've been missing out all this time!

I just love happy Jack o'Lanterns!

The colors of the ivy crawling on our chimney are so pretty.

We had a busy weekend with cleaning up all the leaves in the yard and dead foliage. But it was perfect weather and we all did it together. It brought back memories for me and how I rode in the back of my Dad's pickup sitting on the wheel well along side those bagged leaves that us kids raked and were now ready to go to the dump. This was also the first time I remember the smell of fire from the house chimneys against the autumn air. We didn't get curbside pickup service for the leaves back then like we do here. 
Savannah and I made caramel apples. I found many options for buying already unwrapped caramels or even thought about using a home made recipe, but I like unwrapping the candy, that is what makes part of the fun. 

We carved our pumpkins while watching It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. I even got a shot of our TV during the famous, "I got a rock" -heh I'll never get tired of watching these and it will always be part of our tradition as it was mine when I was little. I felt bad for Savannah, her pumpkin had double the size of rind as ours did so we had to help her a bit. Charlie's turned out pretty neat, it resembled a robot. When I told him this my guess based off his smile in response, I think he liked that.  
 
 
 
 
 

Savannah and her best friend went trick or treating. I thought she did a good job designing her costume. It was a lot of fun to watch her and Ari go off together - almost like watching her for the first time. I often try to soak it all in as I know it is going to be one of many "lasts" as we approach adolescence.

 We even dressed up the cat. He went with it, but he is so wiggly it was hard to capture the perfect shot.
 This cat meows with his nose scrunched up. I don't know if I have many pictures of him without squinting his face all up. It is so cute. He talks a lot and is quite animated. Who knew a cat would give us so much entertainment?


Here's a throwback....Savannah's 2nd Halloween. She is much happier here than her first.
BTW there is a special story behind this little pumpkin with green shoes...and I'll never throw it away. My goal this upcoming year is to organize all my photos and get more scrap booking done. I find I may be better organized to do an online scrapbook but we will see. Memories seem to be more tangible in good old fashioned photo paper. 

Have a good night folks!

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