Happy Halloween......from Whippleville

We missed out on the aisles and aisles of candy, the costumes, the decorations, and all that goes along with the upcoming candy fest. But we did celebrate in our own way this year!

We decided not to carve the pumpkin so that I could cook it and make pumpkin bars, cookies, bread, etc. We have our priorities straight!

But we did decorate it.  We did not set it outside because I didn't think our neighbors would understand and it would just leave them wondering why those weird Americans have a decorated pumpkin outside their door :)

Even though we did not go trick-or-treating, we managed to have fun.  When the kids came home from school, I had the door locked and when they tried to come in, I opened the door and said, "Oh look at the trick-or-treaters we have!  What are you dressed as?" They played along and I gave them some special candy from a bowl - snickers bars and sour punch candy straws.

For dinner, I wanted to have a little taste of America as well. We had corn dogs (I had to look up a recipe and they turned really pretty good) and mac-n-cheese. For dessert, I made soft-baked pumpkin cookies.

The kids had a friend from school over and she ate with us.  She is from Australia and knew about Halloween, although they do not celebrate it.  It was fun to include her in our talk about all things American related to Oct. 31st.

I realized that I did not get any "good" candy for myself, which, as most of you know, is one of the big perks of being a mom of kids who go trick-or-treating. No worries; my wonderful husband had to go to the pharmacy to get meds (around the corner) and he brought me back  a surprise......my very own snickers bar (and it is bigger than the one I got for the kids).

All in all, I cannot complain. I am very thankful that we get to experience a new culture, with all of its customs, and keep our own special traditions of our home culture.

My New Shoes

I bought a pair of shoes the other day from a store in a market near our flat. It was a small store (about 12 X 15 ft) with LOTS of mirrors and glittery shoes. My daughter was mesmerized by all the sparkle. I already had an idea of what I was looking for and I started my search. There was no shortage of employees to help me in my search. I might mention, at this point, that we live in a city of about 20 million people. I found shoes that I liked and immediately a gentleman was close by to get me the right size. I watched as he walked to the middle of the store, looked up into a hole in the ceiling that was about 2 X 2 ft and said something. A few minutes later, a shoe box fell from the hole.  Seriously, there was a shoe fairy up there getting the requested sizes and throwing them down! I tried on the shoes and told the man that I wanted to buy them. He pointed me to a counter at the front of the store (actually just a few feet away). He walked with me and handed the shoe box to another man. I stood at the counter while another man punched in the price, printed a receipt, and handed it to me. I took out my money to pay and the man pointed to another man at the end of the counter. I stepped over a couple of feet  and handed my receipt to man and paid him. He stamped my receipt "paid" and gave it back to me. I took it and realized that I did not have the shoe box. I looked behind me and saw yet another man with my shoes in a plastic bag. I handed him my receipt and he stamped "delivered", gave it back to me with my shoes.

I do not say all of this to be critical at all. I find it amazing that so many employees can work in one store. Each person had their designated role and it worked. I guess in a city of so many people, lots of jobs are needed. Everyday is an adventure!

This picture is for illustration purposes only :)