Costume Parade 2014

I spent Halloween at my parents' house waiting for some trick-or-treaters to come and show us their costumes.  While we waited, we had chili and donuts.  My Mom has made chili every Halloween since I was a little girl and we all look forward to it.

Tashena was a scarecrow.  She found everything for her costume at thrift stores and my sister found her scarecrow tattoos here.  I think she looked fantastic!  Tashena always comes up with interesting and unique ideas for Halloween.  She went trick-or-treating and then to a party with her friends.

Sean decided to be a skeleton again.  He gets a bonus for being a skeleton because it is a costume but, after Halloween, it is a jacket.  He was so excited to go trick-or-treating and he could barely lift his bag when he was finished.

Scarecrow and Skeleton 2014

Cinderella 2006

Witch 2007

Snow White 2008

Shrek and Princess Jasmine 2009

The Bride of Frankenstein and The Karate Kid 2010

Medusa and Ninja 2011

Yuki (from She Smells the Dead by E.J. Stevens) and Skeleton 2012

Secret Agent and Skeleton (at a Masquerade Ball) 2013

The Vacationers

The October selection for my book club was The Vacationers by Emma Straub.  I was not impressed. This is a very vacuous novel about an American family's two week vacation to Mallorca.  Franny and Jim Post are ostensibly celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary but we soon discover that Jim has been unfaithful with a much younger intern at his office and has, consequently, lost his job. Franny wants to use this vacation to think about the future of their marriage.  Their daughter Sylvia, who is about to leave for college, has decided that this vacation is the perfect opportunity to lose her virginity. Their ne'er-do-well son Bobby is having financial difficulties and is trying to find a way to ask them for a rather sizable loan. Bobby's girlfriend Carmen, whom everyone dislikes because she is older than Bobby, wants a commitment from him. Franny's best friend Charles and his husband Lawrence are on a short-list to adopt a baby but Charles is having second thoughts. Obviously, the perfect vacation envisioned by Franny does not go according to plan.  Through much of this novel, I kept waiting for something, anything, to happen.  The plot was so predictable and riddled with cliches that I almost abandoned it several times. I kept thinking it would get better because it received such glowing reviews. It didn't.  The characters whine and complain (while lying around the pool) and never really deal with the underlying problems in their lives.  Furthermore, all of the characters are completely unlikable people who do some really despicable things to each other! They are so unsympathetic that I was a bit disappointed when none of them got any sort of comeuppance!  The resolution was just a little bit too perfect for me and it definitely wasn't satisfying.  This is another one of those times when I wonder if I've read the same book that everyone else did...

Halloween Hi-Jinks

I have been attending the Utah Symphony's annual Halloween concert for the past few years and it has become another favorite holiday tradition.  I attended this year's concert on Tuesday night and, as always, it was a lot of fun!  The orchestra played some great spooky music such as the Overture from The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber, "Danse Macabre" by Camille Saint-Saens, "Ritual Fire Dance" from El Amor Brujo by Manuel de Falla, "Thunder & Lightning Polka" by Johann Strauss, Jr., "Harry's Wondrous World" from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by John Williams, "The Bride of Frankenstein" by Franz Waxman, "Devil's Dance" from The Witches of Eastwick by John Williams, and "Funeral March of a Marionette" by Charles Gounod.  All were suitably atmospheric and accessible for even the youngest in attendance.  A young girl sitting near me told her friend that she thought she would be bored but ended up really liking the concert.  One of my favorite pieces was Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky (Have I mentioned that I really like Russian composers?).  Many in the audience recognized this from Fantasia but I imagined a coven of witches cavorting around a bonfire and casting spells!  I also really loved Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach.  I think of this piece as the quintessence of horror (It has been used in many horror films) and I wonder if Bach intended it thus?  The concert concluded with "Ride of the Valkyries" from Die Walkure by Richard Wagner.  It was another favorite because it was very dramatic!  I was quite impressed with the horn section in this piece.  There was a costume competition in the lobby with the audience picking the winners after the intermission.  I thought there were some really clever ones, including a group dressed as Star Wars characters with one person as an amazing AT-AT Walker!  Orchestra members were also in costume which was hilarious to watch.  The percussion section dressed as green army men and won the orchestra competition (as they did last year dressed as the Blue Man Group).  However, my favorite was the bass section.  One bass player was dressed as a bee keeper and the rest were bees!  I think they should have won!  Put this concert on your calendar for next year and start planning your costumes!  I'm sure it will become a great Halloween tradition.

Note:  The Utah Symphony performs several concerts like this one, which are suitable for families, throughout the season.  I am planning on taking my niece and nephew to the Here Comes Santa Claus concert in December.  Go here to get tickets for your family.

Dinner at La Caille

Every year I am invited to a dinner at La Caille, a beautiful French restaurant at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon.  It is quite extravagant, but every once in a while it is nice to get all dressed up for a lovely evening!

As you drive through the gates and up the tree-lined brick road, it is like you are entering another world.  The grounds are incredibly beautiful and I always like to get there early so I can stroll through the gardens and the vineyard.

You might meet one of the many peacocks who roam freely!  Be careful, though, because they are kind of mean.

The restaurant is located inside a French-style chateau.

Once inside the chateau, you are escorted to one of several intimate dining rooms on three levels.  In each dining room there are alcoves and nooks which give you the feeling of separation from other diners.

My dinner had a fixed menu (on fancy menu cards) which included Escargot with Roasted Garlic and Herb Butter, Raspberry Sorbet, Fresh Romaine Salad with Champagne Dressing, Vegetable Ravioli, and Crepe Maison with Vanilla Ice Cream and Chocolate Sauce.  I do feel that the food is a little bit pricey (most entrees are between $28 and $56) but the atmosphere and ambiance are definitely worth it!  La Caille is the perfect spot for a special occasion dinner, such as an anniversary.  Go here for more information.

Note:  A friend of mine teaches French and he takes his classes to La Caille every year.  One year he asked me to come along as a chaperon and I ended up at a table of restless boys.  I started quizzing them on their French vocabulary and, because I was in a silly mood, I taught them the word decolletage (because the waitresses wore very low-cut uniforms).  When our waitress came back to the table to fill our water glasses, one of the boys yelled out, "Miss Johnson, what was the French word for boobs?"  Yeah.  What's the French word for embarrassed?

Pumpkin Carving 2014

Traditions are very important to Sean and Tashena.  Everything Marilyn and I did with Tashena the first year she joined our family automatically became a tradition to be repeated every year.  She immediately informed Sean of these important rituals when he joined the family.  They look forward to each of them with much anticipation and remind us of upcoming ones often.  One such tradition is carving pumpkins and we usually do this the Sunday before Halloween.  The ones they got from the pumpkin patch were deemed much too small so we took them to the grocery store to get more. Of course, Sean and Tashena picked the biggest pumpkins they could find (so did I).

The scale at the grocery store maxes out at 30 pounds.  Every one of our pumpkins maxed out the scale.  It was pretty funny!

As you can see, we had a lot of fun carving our pumpkins.  Sean is fascinated by the "guts" and always wants me to take a picture of him pretending to eat them.  While we carved the pumpkins, Kristine roasted the seeds.  They are delicious!

Sean with his Spooky Bat.

Tashena with The Raven.  It was such a fun night.  I think I look forward to all of our traditions as much as Sean and Tashena do!