Halloween photos
I gotz Halloween photos for yew.
Page of all: http://swankivy.com/pictures/halloween2009/halloween2009.html
Some cutes:
Follow this link for more, including decorations, food, and my mother as Elvira.
My party was a complete success--except for having SO many people in the apartment! My attendees were Avi, Amin & Heather, Stephanie, Derek, Mikey, Gary, Jeaux, Kit, Michael, Eric, Meghan & Brendon (with kids Katelyn & Benjamin), Adrienne, Kim, Heather & Matt, and my mom. If you do the math, that's more than 20 people in this place. Though some had left by the time the last shift (latecomer Kim and the Mom-Heather-Matt group) arrived.
My preparation went well. For those unaware, I invite local folks lucky enough to live close enough to me, and I feed them appetizers and dinner, followed by trick-or-treating and finally dessert. I home-make everything, though there's a bit of cheating involved (e.g., my mashed potatoes are flakes from the Idahoan package, and I served some frozen tater tots, plus the crusts of my pumpkin pies were store-bought). It was still quite a lot of effort, but so rewarding to see everyone enjoying the food!
The appetizers: I put out apples, with caramel dip, agave nectar, or honey to dip. I served carrots and mushrooms with ranch dip, and there was a bowl of honey-roasted peanuts, plus homemade molasses-ginger animal cookies (gee, cutting THOSE out was great fun!) and a bowl of nachos with salsa. Oh, and a little bowl of candy. Candy corn/autumn mix basically.
The dinner: I served homemade baked macaroni and cheese, cheesy potatoes (from the package), corn, tater tots, and a quinoa/pea dish with spices. (That last was an experiment. Some of my guests really liked it.) The homemade muffin selection included vegan banana muffins, pumpkin muffins, and cranberry muffins. Avi contributed a bowl of unnamed bean thing which was quite tasty! And there was also a box of Publix chicken that Meg brought for the meat-eaters. I also had home-spiced apple cider in the Crockpot.
A small group of us went trick-or-treating, and the rest of the bums stayed behind and watched The Reduced Shakespeare Company on DVD for some reason. (I put out Lost Skeleton of Cadavra and Nightmare Before Christmas for if they wanted something Halloweeny, but they had other ideas. I'm going to take a shot in the dark and suspect that Meg and Bren had something to do with this choice. Heh.) My trick-or-treat group (Avi, Amin, Heather, and Adrienne) went door to door begging for candy, and the FIRST door we knocked on revealed a sourpuss bitch lady who told us we were too old for this. Grrr. I hate when people think we're just trying to get free candy. We actually don't give much of a crap about the candy. What's wrong with trick-or-treating even if you're a grown-up?! But most of the rest of the people who answered were nice, though we did get a couple comments. One lady was really nice to us, and when we thanked her for not being a grump she was like "Oh, believe me, I understand . . . I teach high school." (Did she suggest we were in high school? Score!) And the last house we went to had a big rock band setup where people were playing the video game and a bunch of folks were giving out hot dogs, candy, beverages, and BEER. (Two of my trick-or-treat party got beers. How funny.) When I returned, I rustled up dessert!
The sweets: Homemade pumpkin pie, cream cheese pumpkin roll, fall leaf cookies, pumpkin brownies, and a pitcher of Chocolate de Mexicanos (a hot chocolate drink I make with milk and spices and chocolate). I had whipped cream to add and there was also the muffins (which were kinda desserty too) and the ginger cookies left over from the appetizer table.
This year I made myself crazy very little because I planned well, and Mikey even helped by washing dishes while I was out trick-or-treating, so I only had one round of dishes to do after it was all over. My guests were also for the most part very neat eaters--there was so little to clean up, hardly any crumbs or anything! There was a weird orange sticky spot squished into the rug in my bedroom, but I have no idea what it was because I didn't serve anything bright orange as far as I know, and one chair had some pale stains on it. Not much damage for a party this size. I like my friends.
The group began to drift apart sometime after midnight I think. The late arrivals were Kim, and my mom with Heather and Matt. Heather was dressed as a pimp and Matt as one of her bitches, I guess. Mom was Elvira. My mom alarmed people by trying to kiss them. She sat on Mikey's lap also. Gary was like "Now that I've met your mom, that explains so much about you." Really? Like what?
Kim, Stephanie, and Eric stayed for a while. We sat around consuming the appetizers and bullshitting. Eventually they finally left around 1:30. I cleaned up the apartment and dumped the cooler and blew out the candles and refrigerated everything and seriously, you couldn't tell a party had just happened. And then close to three in the morning, I got a knock at my door. It was Derek! He had said he'd come back and I assured him that the party'd be going for a while into the wee hours, but this was VERY wee. I was still up though, and I invited him in for pie. He consumed it and we chatted a while and he gave me some stuffed animals he won at the other party. I had a bit of a tummy ache, which sometimes happens to me when I'm tired. (I didn't actually eat very much. I was busy making sure other people got fed and watered, so I tend not to do much but munch in between.)
I went to bed and then my tummy ache got worse, and by about 4 in the morning I ended up in the bathroom making pumpkin-colored puke. I was alarmed because I was afraid I inadvertently poisoned everyone at my party, but nobody else got sick, so I'm thinking I probably just ate too much stuff with cinnamon in it. (Most of my baked goods had that. :P) And I'm lactose intolerant and had a milk-based beverage, so maybe it was just the combination. . . .
Page of all: http://swankivy.com/pictures/halloween2009/halloween2009.html
Some cutes:
Follow this link for more, including decorations, food, and my mother as Elvira.
My party was a complete success--except for having SO many people in the apartment! My attendees were Avi, Amin & Heather, Stephanie, Derek, Mikey, Gary, Jeaux, Kit, Michael, Eric, Meghan & Brendon (with kids Katelyn & Benjamin), Adrienne, Kim, Heather & Matt, and my mom. If you do the math, that's more than 20 people in this place. Though some had left by the time the last shift (latecomer Kim and the Mom-Heather-Matt group) arrived.
My preparation went well. For those unaware, I invite local folks lucky enough to live close enough to me, and I feed them appetizers and dinner, followed by trick-or-treating and finally dessert. I home-make everything, though there's a bit of cheating involved (e.g., my mashed potatoes are flakes from the Idahoan package, and I served some frozen tater tots, plus the crusts of my pumpkin pies were store-bought). It was still quite a lot of effort, but so rewarding to see everyone enjoying the food!
The appetizers: I put out apples, with caramel dip, agave nectar, or honey to dip. I served carrots and mushrooms with ranch dip, and there was a bowl of honey-roasted peanuts, plus homemade molasses-ginger animal cookies (gee, cutting THOSE out was great fun!) and a bowl of nachos with salsa. Oh, and a little bowl of candy. Candy corn/autumn mix basically.
The dinner: I served homemade baked macaroni and cheese, cheesy potatoes (from the package), corn, tater tots, and a quinoa/pea dish with spices. (That last was an experiment. Some of my guests really liked it.) The homemade muffin selection included vegan banana muffins, pumpkin muffins, and cranberry muffins. Avi contributed a bowl of unnamed bean thing which was quite tasty! And there was also a box of Publix chicken that Meg brought for the meat-eaters. I also had home-spiced apple cider in the Crockpot.
A small group of us went trick-or-treating, and the rest of the bums stayed behind and watched The Reduced Shakespeare Company on DVD for some reason. (I put out Lost Skeleton of Cadavra and Nightmare Before Christmas for if they wanted something Halloweeny, but they had other ideas. I'm going to take a shot in the dark and suspect that Meg and Bren had something to do with this choice. Heh.) My trick-or-treat group (Avi, Amin, Heather, and Adrienne) went door to door begging for candy, and the FIRST door we knocked on revealed a sourpuss bitch lady who told us we were too old for this. Grrr. I hate when people think we're just trying to get free candy. We actually don't give much of a crap about the candy. What's wrong with trick-or-treating even if you're a grown-up?! But most of the rest of the people who answered were nice, though we did get a couple comments. One lady was really nice to us, and when we thanked her for not being a grump she was like "Oh, believe me, I understand . . . I teach high school." (Did she suggest we were in high school? Score!) And the last house we went to had a big rock band setup where people were playing the video game and a bunch of folks were giving out hot dogs, candy, beverages, and BEER. (Two of my trick-or-treat party got beers. How funny.) When I returned, I rustled up dessert!
The sweets: Homemade pumpkin pie, cream cheese pumpkin roll, fall leaf cookies, pumpkin brownies, and a pitcher of Chocolate de Mexicanos (a hot chocolate drink I make with milk and spices and chocolate). I had whipped cream to add and there was also the muffins (which were kinda desserty too) and the ginger cookies left over from the appetizer table.
This year I made myself crazy very little because I planned well, and Mikey even helped by washing dishes while I was out trick-or-treating, so I only had one round of dishes to do after it was all over. My guests were also for the most part very neat eaters--there was so little to clean up, hardly any crumbs or anything! There was a weird orange sticky spot squished into the rug in my bedroom, but I have no idea what it was because I didn't serve anything bright orange as far as I know, and one chair had some pale stains on it. Not much damage for a party this size. I like my friends.
The group began to drift apart sometime after midnight I think. The late arrivals were Kim, and my mom with Heather and Matt. Heather was dressed as a pimp and Matt as one of her bitches, I guess. Mom was Elvira. My mom alarmed people by trying to kiss them. She sat on Mikey's lap also. Gary was like "Now that I've met your mom, that explains so much about you." Really? Like what?
Kim, Stephanie, and Eric stayed for a while. We sat around consuming the appetizers and bullshitting. Eventually they finally left around 1:30. I cleaned up the apartment and dumped the cooler and blew out the candles and refrigerated everything and seriously, you couldn't tell a party had just happened. And then close to three in the morning, I got a knock at my door. It was Derek! He had said he'd come back and I assured him that the party'd be going for a while into the wee hours, but this was VERY wee. I was still up though, and I invited him in for pie. He consumed it and we chatted a while and he gave me some stuffed animals he won at the other party. I had a bit of a tummy ache, which sometimes happens to me when I'm tired. (I didn't actually eat very much. I was busy making sure other people got fed and watered, so I tend not to do much but munch in between.)
I went to bed and then my tummy ache got worse, and by about 4 in the morning I ended up in the bathroom making pumpkin-colored puke. I was alarmed because I was afraid I inadvertently poisoned everyone at my party, but nobody else got sick, so I'm thinking I probably just ate too much stuff with cinnamon in it. (Most of my baked goods had that. :P) And I'm lactose intolerant and had a milk-based beverage, so maybe it was just the combination. . . .