kevinbob777 - Trick-or-Treat on Turkey Day?

Trick-or-Treat on Turkey Day?

Monday, November 28, 2011 1:39:29 AM

Days pass quickly. The last five weeks are a blur. One holiday overtakes another holiday. It all runs together.
Does this fall holiday sound familiar?
You go from door to door asking for food.
Sometimes they give you candy and you go on to the next house.
Sometimes they invite you in for a big meal and then send you on your way with bags of leftovers.
Halloween? Thanksgiving? It's all pretty much the same.
Trick-or-treating turkeys? Thankful ghosts and goblins? Bags of candy? Bags of groceries?
This is how it works.
You get an invitation for a Thanksgiving dinner. Then you get another invitation. And another. You accept them all.
Thursday... Thanksgiving in Sammamish... you arrive hungry. You leave full, hauling a bag of vegetarian delights back home with you. Thanks, Ondrea.

Friday... Another Thanksgiving meal. Three desserts. A big bag of leftovers. Thanks, Mary.

Sunday, yet another Thanksgiving meal. Same thing... grocery bags full of leftovers to take home. Thanks, Donna.

The Thanksgiving season for us was all about receiving.
Thursday we were guests at a lavish affair in Sammamish.

There was acorn squash stuffed with wild rice, currents and nuts.

There was a huge celebration loaf in our honor. Denine had brought delicious pies.
Jia and her friend provided the entertainment.

There was some evidence that not everything was actually homemade, but it was all delicious.

Leftovers? Sure, we'd love to take some home.

Friday we were at Mary's. It was all about the desserts. Three of them. Persimmon pudding, dutch plumb cobbler, apples on top of stuff. Oh, and then there was the tamal. Bob and I had anticipated the big meal by walking around the neighborhood in the sun earlier in the day.

Sunday at Donna's looked like this:

Jeff brought the vegetarian "neat loaf" with potatoes and mushroom gravy. There was a cranberry crisp so well disguised it made it into the main course as a side dish. Vegetables abounded. Desserts were ample.

While the Thanksgiving season for us was all about receiving, Halloween was all about giving. I spent hours handing out candy. We had about 600 trick-or-treaters. Our neighbors at the end of the block counted well over 600. Towards the end we started to run out of candy, so I dipped into my supply of Korean rice-flavored candy.

And the Thai tamarindo candy. And the calamansi candy from the Philippines. The trick-or-treaters were uniformly thankful, whatever the candy that ended up in their baskets.
Bob had the place decorated beautifully for Halloween.

I even did a demo for my students to teach them how to make a jack-o'-lantern (only I handled the knife).

Then there was that other fall holiday, Veterans' Day.

Bob and I went to Oregon to celebrate Veterans' Day with family. It was an early Thanksgiving for us in one way. We took Mom out for Thai food.

Lois, The World's Greatest Aunt, was there from Eugene, along with my cousin Bethani, her husband Steve, and their two genius sons, Simon and Oliver.

Carol was there.

Shirlee and Matt were there, too, along with the heavenly hosts.

To cut down on costs, they have bears in charge of security where Mom lives.

Meanwhile, back in Burien...

Let's see... Besides holiday feasting, what have we been up to?
Just before Halloween the world looked like this:

The first part of November looked like this:

There were two bald eagles flying over our neighborhood. My camera was set on "Sasquatch mode".

The pink flamingos stood still for a photo, unlike the eagles.

November didn't have enough food-related holidays, so Bob and I invented another one. Korean Cuisine Appreciation Day. Mary celebrated with us. We barbecued mushrooms at our own table.

I've taken up persimmon arranging. They're fun to eat, too.

Then there is pitch-flavored candy from Turkey. Yummy.

Brazilian Christmas bread is available in Burien now.

Oh, wait!
There was one more November holiday!
Lori had a birthday. Donna had a party. We all benefited.

November 20th the ground looked frosty.

I almost forgot about the other food-related holiday in November...
Pan de muerto for the Day of The Dead.

So how was the weather on Thanksgiving in Burien?

Ancient HistoryHow to Have A Birthday

Comments

Unregistered user # Monday, November 28, 2011 3:37:12 AM

Anonymous writes: Spectacular nature photos.

Unregistered user # Monday, November 28, 2011 6:21:54 AM

Anonymous writes: Kevin, Great pictures. It is wonderful to see your family looking so well. Have you gained weight from all the feasting, or do you and Bob exercise enough to balance out? Pumpkin carving for class is a great idea. Did you use a candle too? Thanks for sharing such good stories and pictures. Any news from Brazil? Pictures?

Unregistered user # Thursday, December 1, 2011 1:10:24 AM

Mig Well writes: Did you get shocked the currents in the acorn squash? Or were they really currants? This comment entitles you to proofread all my writings and make appropriate comments.

Unregistered user # Thursday, December 1, 2011 1:12:40 AM

Mig Well writes: Be careful with these holidays or you may become as corpulent and rotund as I. Somehow you seem to have found the secret to avoiding this problem.