Halloween's A-Gone

Wow, it all happened so fast. All week we prepare for the Halloween party, clean and cook and gather and decorate, and then over the course of a few hours it’s all over. But it was fun.

We had around 150-200 trick-or-treater’s show up for candy by my estimation, though I’m not certain. The algorithm I used to come up with that number, a Euclidian permutation of a non-Newtonian based astrophysics formula for space fungus, complete with over four-thousand variables, is a bit unpredictable and unreliable when it comes to things that really matter. So I had to mostly rely on simple reduction: I had 270 pieces of candy to start with and ended with about 10.

In addition to the ghoulish candy-beggers, we played host to around 20 or so folk. ‘Twas a fun and joyous time of fellowship, filled with food galore. Homemade stoneware pizza, a giant pot of chili, pigs-in-a-blanket, pumpkin shaped red Jello, two types of elaborate cookies, chips & meaty queso dip, pumpkin bread, punch with eyeballs floating in it, and a cheesecake with a spider web on top. Lots of food, even if the punch bowl decided to break and spill all over the place. And when there’s food, there’s always a good time.

But it was good seeing everybody and talking with folks, from old friends to new ones. And, in addition to the crowd of people, Stella even had a puppy friend come over and keep her company, too.

Sunday church brought some exciting news in regard to music ministry, and I’m anxious to see what will come of it. Because more often than not, I feel that worship becomes rote and bland, that our singing is done just out of routine, that our voices are raised because that’s what you do, not what you want to do. The words, while beautiful, lack meaning. Yes, I’m looking forward to seeing the change in the music ministry.

And finally I went to a funeral home to pay my respects to a dear old lady that I grew up in church with. Somewhere down the line she’s related to me (not surprising, since my family is gigantic), and it was good to travel back home and see people I don’t get to see often. Having a family as large and as loving and as kind as mine is something I thank God for.

Now I sit here, my mind foggy and my nose stopped up, fighting my personal battle against allergies. I’d wager sitting outside in the cold, October air for a few hours Saturday night has something to do with it. Pictures of various things, ranging from Stella’s Petsmart Show to Halloween night fun, are in the slideshow below. (Sadly, in the confusion and pandemonium of the party, Keisha and I forgot to snap pictures of ourselves. I was Dr. House, and she was a very cute pirate.) Until tomorrow, I bid you all a very fond and wonderfully strange day.