Coffee Break–Volume 73

A weekly list of things accomplished, enjoyed, learned, tried and remembered.

1. It’s Sweater Weather and Barney is NOT Okay. My dog, Barney is pretty happy most of the time–except when it comes to wearing a doggie sweater. Nothing brings him to a pit of despair faster than when I pull out one of his sweaters. He cowers as if he has just gotten in huge trouble and his entire countenance becomes very downcast. It matters not that he is shivering and shaking because of the frigid temps–he would rather turn into a popsicle than wear his sweater of shame.

2. Carving Pumpkins. I feel very fortunate that we got to carve pumpkins this year. In what has truly been the modus operandi of this glorious pandemic year–the stores were wiped out by the time we were ready to buy. There were 4 decent ones left at King Soopers and we swiped them without caring what they looked like. My only requirement was no rotten ones please. Our tradition is to carve pumpkins while we watch The Nightmare Before Christmas. It’s impossible not to sing the songs and act out the scenes–so I’m not sure it’s particularly wise to watch this while wielding sharp instruments for carving pumpkins.

3. Literacy Day. Our school lets the kids have a costume day of sorts every year–they call it Literacy Day and restrict costumes to known literary characters from books on their approved reading lists. Morgan’s class just finished reading Unbroken, so he went as a WW2 soldier–it was what he had already chosen to dress up as for Halloween, so I was thrilled to not have to come up with a second costume. Grayson chose to be Harry Potter. A couple of years ago, he went through a huge Harry Potter obsession, so we already had the costume on hand. I think this is the first year ever that we weren’t scrambling the night before to put together whatever we have on hand in hopes it would pass muster for someone they had read about in a book.

4. Halloween Weekend Gig Night. SofaKillers got to play a gig the night before Halloween at Boot Barn Hall. It was a costume party and it was such a blast. Super Rockstar is still recovering from his knee surgery so he wanted a costume that could incorporate his knee brace. He chose Edward Scissorhands and looked AWESOME! If you haven’t seen Edward Scissorhands playing the harmonica and wearing a cowboy hat–have you even lived yet? They also played a special song–just for Halloween. It was a great show and all who came looked great in their costumes and came ready to have a good time. It was a night to remember for sure.

5. Last Football Game. The boys had their last flag football game of the season this week. They both have improved so much this year–I lost count of how many passes Morgan caught and Grayson got a pick six in one of their games. One thing they both excel at is smack talk. I couldn’t be more proud.

6. Halloween. Halloween felt a bit different this year, but we made sure to enjoy it anyway. The boys wore their costumes–WW2 Soldier for Morgan, The Mandalorian (complete with Baby Yoda) for Grayson and Barney as Elmer Fudd (Nope. He’s still not happy). We went trick or treating at every house we could find–it was a bit paltry in our area but a couple streets away we hit the jackpot. Then we came home and handed out candy to trick or treaters while we watched a movie. We missed having Super Rockstar with us, but he had a gig at The Chicken Coop Halloween night. Most importantly–we got our “candy tax” from the boys–Kit Kats for Super Rockstar and Reese’s for me.