Happy Halloween... and a happy bday to my sister!

 So the day was for Katja lessons. Parenting my four year old is getting a little more interesting. I am unsure if it is because of the age, my recent evaluation or just because the inevitable actions of parenting evolution (or all of these factors and more), however, I am finding it hard to understand and foster that fine line between encouraging/pushing for her to do things and letting it be. This week also brought an expectation of doing something and anticipating it would turn out a certain way and it turning out differently. While I was right with this party-I could totally compare it to collage house/frat parties and being the one in a lone corner, while all the others mingle (not that I've ever actually been to such a thing)- I was also kind of expecting it to be a little less collage frat party and a little more...er, not collage frat party. My husband never did put on the scary movie he brought for background noise so I never had to deal with that either. I suppose it worked out as my husband was pleased that his people came together and hung out (team bonding!) and felt that he didn't necessarily need to stay (we left about an hour in) and that was all that real mattered to me in the end. Also HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SISTER!!!!! Lucky her, she, like my husband, has a birthday date that everybody
celebrates!

Book of the week: Room on the Broom


Have you read this delightful kids book? We also saw it as a video on netflix/youtube! It about a witch and her cat going on a broom flight and with every piece the wind took, the witch acquired a new animal passenger! Then came a witching eating dragon! Luckily her passengers helped scare him off and she made a special broom for them to ride of in! Truly one of my favorite halloween books ever!

So Halloween facts! (goodhousekeeping.com)

  • Halloween started pre-christianity in the celtic fest of Samhain- a festival celebrating the end of the summer, sending off the dead, and warding off unwanted spirits (that where the costumes came in)
  • Trick/treating  was formed in the medieval times from thos3e performing "tricks" (song, dance, poems) in exchange for food and/or money
  • Marriage superstitions were present in the 1800s: the winner of bobbing for apples would be first to marry, apple peels and mirrored candle light would show the initials/face of husband-to-be
  • In the height of irish migration in the early 1900s to he U.S., the act of community trick-or-treating, was thought to control any out of control mischief/pranking that would/could occur
  • After rationing of the world wars, candy companies campiend heavily through such traditions of trick or treating and now Halloween is the second most commercialized holiday; skittles being the most popular candy to date
  • The irish brought the tradition of jack-o-lanterns, though they were carved from turnips, beets and potatoes originally (origin story of "stingy jack" tricking the devil and then being denied entrance to heaven/hell and walking the earth with a lantern)
  • 2020 will be a full moon halloween: full moons are a rarity on halloween and 21st century Halloweens will only host six full moons : 2001, 2020, 2039, 2058, 2077 and 2096. and prior to that was 1955
  • Traditions of good fortune came with irish loafs of raised bread with prizes inside (barmbrack)
  • While Illinoise is the supreme king when it comes to pumpkin patches (they sell five times more than any other state), and candy corn was originally sold by the name of "chicken feed" so it would appeal to the farming community

  • The mask in the movie "halloween" was a William Shatner "Captain Kirk" mask originally, and the disney movie "Hocus Pocs" orrgionally had darker roots for a story line
  • Canada has banned anyone older than 16 from trick or treating (and wearing masks) and encouraged a curfew for the youngers of 8pm, New York has the biggest Halloween parade, black cat adoptions were suspended in certain city shelters, Keene New Hampshire holds the record for 30,581 lit jack o'lanterns and the the record for pumpkin carving (must be a complete face) is 16.1 seconds 
  • Midwesterners and east coasters still claim the tradition of October 30th as mischief night/goosey night: a night full of harmless and dangerous pranks

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