Auntie B's Wax

Trick or Treat ~ A Sweet Memory

November 1, 2015 by Sara

It was a good Halloween. It started out with my going to my parents’ house to rake the remaining (and many) leaves in their yard in preparation for the inevitable snow. I, along with Charlotte, Pinky and Paenney, worked hard to get Mom and Dad’s yard cleaned up as well as we could.

I went home with some aching muscles, only because I’m so out of shape. It wasn’t a hard job, and it certainly didn’t take very long, but I got home and immediately took to my chair to rest my weary bones before the trick-or-treaters came to call.

Our house was somewhat festive with our little jack-o-lanterns adorning the front entry of our house.

We (Husby) decided that if we didn’t have enough candy for all the trick-or-treaters we would hand out some of the very many soy sauce packets we’d accumulated with our many take-out Chinese dinners. Luckily it didn’t come to that.

Nine o’clock rolled around and we turned out the lights, blew out the candles housed in our delightfully carved pumpkins, and called it a night. Throughout the evening we had about thirty-five little goblins visiting our house looking for treats – plenty of chocolate for the lot of them, and some left over for Husby and me. The soy sauce will remain in the fridge until I decide to make my own Chinese food rather than ordering out.

I hope everyone had a marvelous Halloween and that you’re all ready for autumn to give in to the winter sure to follow.

Posted in Holidays | Tagged Halloween | 5 Comments »

Boo!

October 30, 2015 by Sara

Happy All Hallows Eve eve. Tomorrow the goblins will be out and most of them will be as cute as buttons, at least in my neighborhood. Oh, there will be the occasional zombie hockey player or dead salesman done up by high school kids who don’t want to put a lot of effort into a costume but still want a pillowcase full of candy – I don’t care and I’ll never tell anyone they’re too old to Trick or Treat. In fact, I think I might go out next year. Why not?!

This time of year is when Husby and I roll up our sleeves and dig into the pumpkins. It’s pretty fun to carve pumpkins, especially as neither of us has any compulsion to make our jack-o-lanterns extravagant. So we cut off the tops and plunged our hands into the slimy mess of pumpkin guts.

Husby had a plastic bag on the table for slime and a separate container for seeds. Do you not roast your pumpkin seeds? You totally should because they’re delicious and nutritious. Google how to do it – it’s very easy.

By the time we were done we were both laughing at what had become of our creations. Mine was a simple pattern, looking more like a ghost than a jack-o-lantern. Husby’s was much more complex, including a protrusion for a nose with drilled nostrils to boot.

Last year I claimed myself to be the Scrooge of Halloween, but I had a blast carving a pumpkin this year and even look forward to greeting the Trick-or-Treaters with enthusiasm. What’s with that?

Posted in Holidays | Tagged Halloween, Jack-o-Lantern, pumpkin | 2 Comments »

The End Is Near

October 29, 2015 by Sara

Oh all right! (Say that like Suzanne Sugarbaker.) I know I haven’t posted much these past few weeks and I’ve been questioned about it incessantly. What’s wrong? Where are you? Have you given up blogging? The answers are nothing, here, and no.

Here’s the deal. You know how I sometimes talk about the day job? Well, those days are coming to an end. I’ve submitted my letter of intent to retire, I’ve completed all of the paper work required with my department in the State of Minnesota and the Minnesota State Retirement System. I’m turning in paperwork to the parking ramp notifying them I’m cancelling my contract and I’m training in a person to replace me. It’s happening. The day job will not be a part of my life for much longer. My last day will be December 1, 2015.

The thing is, for the first time in my entire career (over thirty-five years) the workload is unbearable. By the time I’m done with the day job at 3:30 I’m too exhausted to do anything when I get home. That means I haven’t been blogging, I haven’t been crafting, I haven’t even been keeping up with my housework.

But here’s the fun part. On my sidebar I’ll have a countdown to my retirement date. Also, November just happens to be NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) which challenges bloggers to submit one post per day during the month of November. I’m going to try to write one blog post ever day during the countdown of my retirement. They may not be interesting posts, but I’ll try to document what’s going on with me during the entire month of November, in addition to posting some other goodies that may have nothing to do with my retirement.

During my retirement years I plan to write a lot more (even novels!) and now is as good a time to start than any. I hope you’ll root me on during my final days as a civil servant