Halloween Hoopla

I have had a good week. I'm back on my exercise routine, and I have accomplished some good things. I made a birthday dress for Olivia and a harvest table runner. I've been spending so much time in the kitchen, it felt good to work in my sewing room for a change.

Saturday was an especially nice day. Craig and I began the day in the temple and then I made apple sauce and prepared for the Halloween Party. We began the party at five. We fed the kids first. They had corndogs, corn grapes, muffins, and mouse candy for dinner (sliced string cheese). The Holm kids were there a little early and helped me carve a face on my Jack-O-Lantern. Joseph drew it and James carved. Ian cut out pumpkins for the pumpkin walk and Katherine cut up the mouse candy. Melany was there early as well, with her children and helped me make preparations. After the kids ate, the adults had Missy's chili, Debbie's potato soup, and Emily's recipe for white bean chili. We had fresh vegetables and grapes and Danica made muffins and Halloween cupcakes for dessert. After dinner, we played games. We gave the children chewing gum and played "Pin the Wart on the Witch's nose. It was difficult to tell who was the real winner because of a somewhat inadequate blindfold. After that game we sat in a circle with a pan and two dice. We passed the pan and if you rolled a seven or an eleven you got to put on gloves and see how many candy kisses you could unwrap and eat before some on else rolled the lucky numbers. Last of all we played our traditional "Pumpkin walk". Before we started the games, I told the children to be aware that we would be eating lots and candy and there would be lots of wrappers to throw away. I warned them in my most tough grandma voice that if I saw anyone throw a wrapper on the floor, I would make them into the Headless Horseman. When two year old Benjamin heard that, he shouted, "Hooray!" We all got a good laugh out of that. We let the children go trick-or-treating and play a little longer and then one by one they went home and I was bushed. I hope everyone had a good time!

Greenfield Village

Today is Saturday, October 17. Craig, Emily, Olivia and I visited Greenfield Village at the Henry Ford Museum complex. We loved this place! It's like Disney Land for Senior Citizens, but it is also a nice place for families. It is a historic village with a working farm and many people working in the village and homes that help you feel you are going back in time. There was a part of Thomas Edison's laboratory, many homes from famous Americans, craftsworks, and homes from many localities. We really needed three days to see it all. We rode a train, took a drive in a model T, a horse drawn stage, and an old fashioned bus. We loved riding the carousel with Olivia because she was delighted with it. Our favorite home we saw was the Cotswold Cottage. It was darling. I always wanted to see the Cotwolds in England. Today I got to sample that. It was pretty cold outside but we could go into buildings to look around and get warm. We had some good warm food at the "Taste of History " restaurant. We have seen other historical villages like this, but nothing to compare with the size of this village. It was a really fun day!

Cranbrook

Today we slept in until 8:15, in our luxurious guest room at the Daley Sanatorium. It felt great! We visited Cranbrook Manor to see a beautiful old home and gardens. We learned about the Arts and Crafts movement in interior design. All the wood work in the home was done by hand which is typical of the Arts and Crafts movement. People of this day felt that hand crafted items were superior to things made in a factory. A man named William Morris said this about the Arts and Crafts movement. "Now it is one of the chief uses of decoration, the chief part of its alliance with nature, that it has to sharpen our dulled senses in this matter: for this end are those wonders of intricate patterns interwoven, those strange forms invented, that men have so long delighted in: forms and intricacies that do not necessarily imitate nature, but in which the hand of the craftsman is guided to work in the way that she does, till the web, the cup, or the knife, look as natural, nay as lovely, as the green field, the river bank, or the mountain flint.

To give people pleasure in the things they must perforce use, that is one great office of decoration; to give people pleasure in the things they must perforce make, that is the other use of it."