Hello there world! We survived the Frankenstorm. In fact, Hurricane Sandy offered our family one of the most cozy, wonderful days we’ve had all together in a long time! With Dave home from work unexpectedly, while the rain fell and the wind whipped, the four of us hunkered down at home and enjoyed all of our favorite things about Fall. We were lucky to never lose power at all (knock on wood) but all day I sort of wondered if we would, so each bit of electricity we used as if it were our last!
We started the day off with pumpkin waffles topped with chocolate shavings.Yum. Next we brought out the carving tools and sat around the table in our pajamas scheming designs for our Jack-O-Lanterns. I decided days ago that I would carve a minivan into mine. I’m sort of obsessed at the moment, which is hilarious because I grew up completely anti-mini. Sometime in the last year, I’ve become completely converted to the comfort and convenience of the swagger wagons, though, and I look forward to bringing one home someday. (Luckily, after a long saga with my car on my way home from Sewing Summit, it’s back in business and I’m get to hang onto it for a little while longer.) Dave drew a perfect homage to the storm, and executed it perfectly, as he tends to do with all things artistic. For a chemist-turned-attorney, he’s sure a fantastic artist. I like his design so much, I might make it into a print for some fabric, or a stencil for a tee. Isn’t it cool?
Milo chose to help carve his pumpkin into a Pirate. He was thrilled to be able to take out each piece after I cut around them, and he even turned it into a puzzle for a little while by putting the pieces all back in again! After a little brainstorming, Dave and I came up with the idea to carve a banana into Eliot’s pumpkin. His little vocabulary is starting to blow up, and “na na” is one of his new words. And the kid can down bananas like it’s his full time job. Dave did the drawing and the carving on the banana, and it might be my favorite pumpkin!
After carving, we lunched on grilled cheese sandwiches on raisin swirl bread. I’m a huge sucker for raisins, and an even bigger one for cheese, so it felt like a perfect combination. Naptime was delightful. Eliot slept, I slept, Milo watched a spooky cartoon and Dave read the news. When Eliot woke up, Dave and the boys played hide-and-seek. Then when I woke up, I took over hiding and seeking while Dave snuck back to catch some zzz’s. Mid-afternoon, since the power was going strong so I made a batch of homemade soft pretzels using the same recipe I did for this shower last year. They were just as simple and delicious as we remembered (especially dipped into Trader Joes Hot & Sweet Mustard.)
By the time the pretzels were eaten, the sun was going down and the storm was getting more fierce. I decided to break open some of our storm food for dinner, in case the power went out and I needed to transfer to the camp stove. I got super gourmet and mixed a can of Trader Joe’s Chicken Chili + a can of diced tomatoes + a can of corn + a cup of pumpkin puree on the stovetop. With just a bit of spice tweaking, it was a delicious, rich, comfortable chili. We invited our neighbors to join us, and they brought freshly baked corn bread. It was wonderful.
The boys bathed and went to bed as easily as ever. For spending the entire day inside of our tiny apartment, we sure were able to wear them out! Dave and I cuddled up with the iPad and watched old seasons of White Collar on Netflix until we couldn’t keep our eyes open. I am sorry for the immense destruction that the hurricane Sandy has and continues to inflict upon the East Cost. I feel so fortunate that she allowed our little family a much-needed day to enjoy the sweetness of our little family and the coziness of our little home.
Part of the greatness of the day probably had to do with the fact that I completely finished sewing Halloween Costumes on Saturday night (about 10 minutes before our big Halloween Party…typical!) I feel a huge relief, and loved having cleared to-do list so I could really take advantage of the special day off we had. I do have a bunch of fun costumes to share with you, along with my much-delayed report of Sewing Summit and some other fun things. I hope you’re enjoying your last bit of the Halloween season, and for those of you affected by the storm, I wish you warmth, dryness, comfort, and electricity!
Anyone else wait out the storm inside? What fun things did you do with your family?
