Well, we had an interesting week, to say the least. For the first time ever, we were blessed to be witness to the Aurora borealis! It was one of the most spectacular, beautiful and majestic phenomena we’ve ever seen! I’ve seen pictures of it my entire life, and knew, while growing up, that I’d never see it in Texas. But, after moving to Maine, I somehow assumed I’d see it each year. That wasn’t to be as we’ve been here for three years and haven’t been blessed with this event before now. But, after that large solar storm last week, my neighbor, Rita, called and excitedly said, “I’m outside and you’re missin’ it!”

We all ran outside and stood in awe, staring at the heavens, which were swimming in waves of red, pink, gray and white. It truly was a humbling and inspiring sight to see! It was chilly so we wrapped up in our warmies, put out the lawn chairs, and cocked our heads back to enjoy the show. Ah, remarkable!!!

On Halloween, it was actually quite toasty (in the 50’s at 5:00 p.m.!) so we took Ali and Max out Trick or Treating (Frank went with friends and Zach says he’s too old for Halloween — sniff). Max was adorable in his Blues Clues costume with his little tail. He wouldn’t say “Trick or Treat” to adults, only to children, but he always said “Thank you.” He got into the spirit quite fast as there’s one street in our town that the entire city converges on. It was quite crowded and everybody on that street really goes all out with the decorations. Even the police were there, handing out candy. So, Max started saying, “Hi everybody!” Hi, Everybody!” He loved looking at the little babies in their costumes, and he wasn’t interested in the candy at all. He was quite content to be part of something that he could feel was very big and very happy. He is quite the social butterfly!

I noticed some of the adults were looking at Ali strangely. Well, she did have two heads, but that didn’t seem to be it. I finally realized that Ali (age 12) was taller than most of the adults, so they were probably wondering why that “woman” was doing out trick or treating. Many of the women had to look up instead of down when she knocked at their door (sigh). Richard and I are 5’ 8”, but it looks like we’ll someday be shorter than all our children!

After dark, Zach and his friends got into trouble with the police. You see, I’d sent them out to clean up the smashed pumpkins off the road (somebody smashed two of ours, but we had lots so it was okay). While they were cleaning up, an officer stopped and, of course, assumed they were smashing them.

I stuck my head out the window and told the officer the boys and the pumpkins were ours, so all was well. And he thanked them for cleaning up the mess to prevent an accident. Some of the pieces were huge (‘cause we buy BIG pumpkins!).

We’ve now taken down the Halloween items and put up the Harvest/Thanksgiving decorations and Ali and I started our Christmas shopping! Oh I just LOVE this time of the year!!

Hugs to everybody!
Ang