🎃🕯️🌜Happy Allhallowtide 🕯️🌛🎃

Lulu, from CreamHeroes on YouTube.

As you may remember, I grew up in Louisiana. As the daughter of a German-Irish Jewish mother and a French Creole Catholic father, my upbringing was a combination of both cultures and religions. My parents respected each other's beliefs and my sister and I were raised to do the same.

Traditions, including holidays, were observed in various ways. For example, Hanukkah and Christmas were equally important in our home as were Easter and Passover. They could have easily clashed, but before they exchanged their wedding vows, my parents vowed to keep their own religions and cultures alive for future generations. They had seen too many other couples marry and have children and discard their own heritage in favor of their spouses, and they and their children suffer because of it. They also wanted their parents to be honored.

I think it instilled a much more open minded view of other cultures and spiritual beliefs in me, and that is always a good thing.

As a child, we celebrated Halloween and the two following days, All Saints Day and All Souls' Day. On All Saint's Day, we visited the cemetery and tidied the graves, put out wreaths and bouquets of flowers and favorite sweets and lit candles.

On Halloween, my parents hosted a masquerade party for business associates, friends and family. I remember the ladies and gentlemen in their beautiful costumes waltzing in the candlelit ballroom. It was like a dream. For years, before I was finally old enough to attend, I watched from the top of the stairs with my nanny, Miss Belle. When the refreshments were served, she would go downstairs and bring up a tray for us to share with dainty cakes and finger sandwiches and ice cream. When we moved to California, my parents were invited to many parties. I went with them occasionally, but it was not the same. Something was missing.

I was never allowed to go trick or treating, so the concept was new to me, when I came to work for My Mr. Cham. Now, he loves Halloween and I love him, so I like to help him to enjoy it. He decorates, buys the treats to bestow on our costumed visitors, chooses our costumes, and makes dinner. I usually assist him at the door and provide the dessert for our post-festivities dinner. He also chooses our entertainment for the evening.

This year, our dinner was Panda Express Orange Chicken, fried rice and egg rolls. 

Dessert was little sweet potato pies with whipped cream. My Mr. Cham is partial to an extra sprinkling of nutmeg.

 I also made a tray of brownies with walnuts, candy corn and pumpkins. 

We did not have any trick or treaters this year, so after dinner we watched the YouTube playlist that my dearest had prepared. All of our favorite animal channels had Halloween videos this year, including Claire Luvcat https://youtu.be/iA8gyRbIR6s

TT, that hat becomes you so!

We also enjoyed this offering from Mugumogo https://youtu.be/E7lhfs3TIFg

Oh Maru, is there a container you have not tried?

And we recently began watching Reachfortheskylar, the first channel I have seen that uses American Sign Language. Terrific! Reachfortheskylar Channel

Our movie was The Most Dangerous Game with Joel McCrea and Fay Wray. https://youtu.be/_DXLTw22HOQ

Old movies are still the best. I have not set foot in a movie theater in over a decade and I do not miss it. Anything worth seeing, will be available on dvd eventually and I am a patient person. Good things come to those who wait. My Mr. Cham is proof of that.

Happy Halloween.

Tess🌷