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Spooky 2020

Weird goes with Halloween and this Halloween definitely was weird this year.  There were tears over canceled classroom parties but smiles over the virtual ones. There was disappointment the ward Trunk or Treat was only outside but joy in creating a vampire themed candy chute to use for social distancing. We made it to the pumpkin patch but forgot to bring them in when it got down to 1° at night so they turned mushy. The movie Halloweentown was so bad we wondered why on earth there were 3 more movies made but we were thrilled to watched the Season 2 premiere of the Mandalorian. The Child still gets awwwws every time he’s on screen. 
Kate had two costumes this year. One she dressed up as a ghost with her good friend Emma for the trunk or treat and for actual Halloween day and trick or treating (because it hadn’t arrived on time) Stitch. That cute alien didn’t fit our food theme so I captioned our family picture on Instagram as “Stitch’s Food Fantasy.”  Thank you to Emma for taking the picture for us. Michelle also had two costumes. The one she wore to her virtual class party, dance class and trick or treating was the Hufflepuff Hannah Abbott.
Our vampire candy chute that was also used at the trunk or treat. Halloween had the perfect set up this year: on a Saturday with a full moon and the clocks moving back one hour the next day to make up for staying up late.  It was odd to experience socially distanced trick or treating but hey, Halloween is about spooky too!
In other news from before Halloween: Smoke from the wild fires that greeted us on the way back from the airport, visiting our local pumpkin patch, and taking a picture of the snow at the sledding hill after many fun trips down. 
Danny’s last baseball game of the season was a chilly one but the boys seemed happy to be there and I was glad to have the opportunity to watch him play one last time before next spring.  They were tied 8-8 but eventually lost so no one wanted to take the team photo we had talked about at the start of the game. Not the fun way to end the season but the weather was announcing loud and clear that the time had come. Luckily it was warmer for Halloween the next day!
Michelle’s submission for miniature pumpkin decorating at her dance studio. I put her Jack Skellington as a background that she drew with a Disney YouTube video.
Natalie worked so hard on her spooky story. I love it!
In excellent news, our busted coat hooks are fixed for the long run and it looks amazing too! If you want to add some function and beauty to your space, I know a guy and I would highly recommend hiring him. 
In more good news, we had fall parent teacher conferences and it turns out I have super likable kids, even during this crazy online and hybrid school year. I was impressed with how many positive things were said about all of them and Michelle was relieved to know she wasn’t behind for bing at the Waldorf school the last three years. In fact, in language arts she was testing anywhere from 5th grade to 8th grade in the various sections. Go Waldorf education!

One thing that I must not was how spooky Halloween was in terms of the looming presidential election. Trump in Biden were soooo close in many battleground states. We are taking .1% in places that were crucial to winning. I’m grateful that we could see the pros and cons of either political party taking control. A lot of what it came down to was although we wanted Biden to win because we wanted Trump out, we knew that if Trump was re-elected we were more likely to be able to go on our postponed Disney Cruise next spring break. Kind of felt like grasping at straws but....

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