Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Thanksgiving and Halloween

Pumpkins with fall leaves grace the outside entrance of a brick home.
Are you ready? I'm not. We're never ready for holidays any more. I used to be a lot more organized when it came to holiday times, but the older I get, the less important it is to do all the decorating and gearing up.

We used to "do" Halloween to "the nines" when my children and grandchildren were small, but not so much anymore. We get all the goodies to hand out, but there's very little in the way of decorating. A jack-lantern here and there but that's about the extent of it.

The same for Thanksgiving. Sometimes I'll have a bunch of small fall gourds in a big wooden bowl, and there's usually a small outdoor wreath, and uncut pumpkins outside on the porch, and in the front entryway of the house two fall floral arrangements. That's pretty much it.

Since our kids married and started their own families (families who are now grown up - the grandbabies are all between 18 and 20!) the only holiday I really take time to decorate for is Christmas. For most of the other holidays our small family is somewhat split up and it's rare for all of them to be here for Thanksgiving.

That happens to be the big racing weekend in our area (usually in Peterborough - "Fall Colours") to end the official race season and sometimes one or both of our kids families are at the races, leaving us to do our own thing.



A display of pumpkins surrounded by fall florals deck the front steps in autumn and fall.If it turns out to be a nice weekend we might take a road trip to get in a last outdoor holiday before the cold weather sets in, and to take photos of the autumn views and landscapes; if it's a miserable weather weekend we snuggle in and watch movies.

But the one thing we always do have is turkey - one way or another. Sometimes I'll cook the turkey and we'll have turkey on lovely soft rolls or homemade bread; other times, it's a fully dressed Thanksgiving dinner ... but there is always turkey. It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without it.

Most years we've been pretty lucky with the weather at Thanksgiving. Unlike the US (whose Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday in November), Canada's Thanksgiving falls early in October (usually the second Monday in October), so for us in the northern part of the American continent the weather is still in the throes of changing from summer to fall.

We often have an "indian summer" right around that Thanksgiving holiday period. We've had Thanksgivings so warm you could still swim, or wear summer clothing, but we've also had Thanksgiving's with snow.

Every year it's a lottery when it comes to the weather ... either it will be almost as warm as late summer, or it will be almost as cold and snowy as winter. I think the earliest full snowfall I remember was on October 8th ... and that was not nice.  Personally, I'd like it to stay like late summer right through the winter (which is why we spend most of our winter in Florida!) but in Canada, that would be what most people call a miracle.

Happy blogging peeps!

Fall chrysanthemums with a tiny burlap scarecrow.

A medium sized fall pumpking with artificial fall leaves.

The outdoor decor for fall, Thanksgiving and Halloweed at the front port of a brick home.

A farm trailer loaded with pumpkins for sale in the autumn.

Not to be eaten, a protected wildlife center still has ducks and geese enjoying the warm pond decorated with reflections from the fall trees.

A small toddler dressed in knitted suite enjoying the sunshine on Thanksgiving day.

A halloween visitor dressed as a bag of jelly belly jelly beans.

Small decorations showing a witch, a ghost and a two little crows for cake or cupcake decorating.

Small party games provide decoration for the flat topped cup cakes, and a small game for kids after the cupcake is finished.

A row of ceramic jack-o-lanterns with a partnering turkey and scarecrow form a simple Halloween decor. These ones hold votive candles to make an eery display when it's dark.

A large clay jack-o-lantern pot which could easily be used for holding wrapped goodies, or a lit candle.


Here a pumkin gets dressed for halloween with cat eyes and nose, a feathery mas, and a witches hat.

A simple face painted on an uncut pumpkin forms a simple halloween display, with small pumpkins on sticks and a scarecrow riding a rope.

And I just have to share this one last photo ... technically, it isn't a Halloween or Thanksgiving display - it used to sit on the service desk of a now- defunct business, but I certainly think it could easily work for Halloween, don't you?

A skull inside a crystal ball sits on a customer service desk.