A Non-political Poll

We have a poll of great import today, and it has nothing to do with the presidential election. It may be divisive, however, so I'm asking everyone to please remain respectful. 

The question at hand: What is the best Halloween treat? 

I am of course thinking about this because we've had the Halloween haul in our house for the past week, and it's always interesting to see what everyone chooses to eat first.

So much to choose from.

One son goes right for the Skittles.

One will allow no one to touch his Reese's.

Another can't choose and eats indiscriminately.

And Poppy? Her favorite was this weird novelty thing that looked like a paint roller and was rolled over the tongue.

A. has a great fondness for popcorn balls, which are a packaged thing I had never seen before moving here. He will also eat all the sour things, chewy things, and generally non-chocolate things that I always considered the garbage candy. He even likes Laffy Taffy, which is sort of inconceivable to me.

As for me, I'm mostly with the Reese's kid--particularly Reese's Pieces, although they are rare--but I do love Hundred Grands, which don't really seem to be a thing anymore. I don't think any of the kids got any this year.

Luckily for me, I seem to be particularly sensitive to chocolate that picks up the taste of other candy, which happens when they're all jumbled around in a bag. The chocolate will taste a bit like the lollipops or whatever, which I find disgusting and which keeps me from eating it. No one else seems to notice this, though, so I guess that's just me.

So tell me: What is your favorite Halloween treat? And bonus question: Do you notice that weird flavor transfer to chocolate in a mixed bag of candy?

Snapshots: First Freeze, Halloween, and All Saints

Our first freeze was Wednesday night, which meant everything remaining in the garden needed to be harvested.

Beets.

The mostly red tomatoes, plus a few peppers.

And the mostly green tomatoes, that will ripen slowly in that box for the next couple of months.

Not pictured is the basil, with which I made quite a bit of pesto for the freezer. The parsley and thyme can survive a light frost, so they're still out there for now, but otherwise, the 2024 garden is done.

Next, Halloween.

I remembered that someone--I think the MiL--had given us a bat cookie cutter, and it seemed like I should use that somehow for Halloween. My bread is not big enough for the width of it, though, so I cut the scrambled eggs with it. It only sort of worked.

Egg bat. If you use a lot of imagination.

I arrived at the school at 3 p.m. for the elementary Halloween party absolutely laden with bags.

Costumes and party offering of cheese and crackers.

The children were not enthused about trick-or-treating this year being in the daylight, but they did greatly enjoy their candy sorting and trading.

One very meticulous child's sorting. I particularly like the Twix laid out in a "T."

November is one of my mayordoma months, which meant I needed to change the altar linens for the feast day of All Saints on November 1. The color for feast days is white, so I went ahead and changed the (fake) flowers, too.

All Saints altar.

Somewhat relatedly, this time of year the rising sun makes some very cool patterns of light on the cross and religious art on a wall of my living room.

May our light shine before all.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.