Halloween

I need to state at the outset that Halloween is my favorite day/night of the year.  It's more than a family foodfest, it's not about having to be (sometimes artificially) nice to people and relatives coming together once a year to celebrate.  It's a time when people assume the identity of someone/something else and live out their new identities. 

There is no event during the year that produces so many smiles among people of different cultures and faiths, so many imaginations, as we see kids dressed up as ballet dancers, pirates, sports figures, political spoofs, etc.

Last year I bought a costume the day after Halloween--in part to save money for the coming year and in part avoiding the difficult decision of what costume to wear when I usually procrastinate until the last minute before Halloween.  Here is what I came up with (notice the fake left hand that frees my left hand to manipulate the snake.

We also hired a professional pumpkin carver to give us some lessons on how to carve a pumpkin. Here is some of our work, under his sage tutelage and with the tools that he brought to our event.

David Infantino from Nonna's Restaurant on 85th & Columbus brought his tools and design ideas for pumpkin carving.  Look at the owl to the right--what a master piece!   The pumpkins carved by our group were then put on display at Nonna's Restaurant.



But....moving on to Thanksgiving....