Happy Halloween!

Our boys won't be trick-or-treating again this year, but we will be handing out candy, and we have two magnificent jack-o-lanterns for the front porch.

I had actually gone with a few colleagues earlier in the week, but I didn’t buy anything for my family because I knew we would want to go together. I like to think that my freshly baked apple pie redeems my day, too. It turned out well, even though I was missing a few of the ingredients—not the beef or the vegetables, fortunately. We were cracking into some of the leftover fortune cookies the next day, and I found myself wondering, when did fortune cookies stop holding real fortunes? This past spring, I waited for the magnolia tree by our house to bloom, and the delicate pink flowers never came. Amelia Bedelia always makes a thousand mistakes throughout the day, but then she makes an incredible dessert, and all is forgiven. The dishwasher is under warranty, which means we need to wait for a part to come in. I might be doing most of the complaining, though. I’m not even sure they serve it in the restaurant anymore since it hasn’t been available the past few times that we have tried to order carryout from there. I am hoping our boys will join me in welcoming people at the door. [a day when I remember Georgie](https://catholicreview.org/its-all-about-georgie/), our nephew and cousin who passed away in utero just a few weeks before he was expected to be born. We are never sure how many trick-or-treaters to expect, but we will be ready.