let the mediocre days Fall Away and replace them with much better ones by doing at least one NEW AND FULFILLING thing in October, November, and December of 2009

Spent Saturday enjoying the various activities at the York Festival of Lights with my mom, 1 of my sisters and 2 of my nieces. We started off at a local craft fair where we picked up a gingerbread house kit and some other little items along with visiting with some friends who had a booth there.

Next we headed to the public library to view the Festival of Gingerbread Houses for some inspiration. They also had a book fair and cartoons playing so we watched Mickey’s Christmas Carol.

After a lunch of grilled cheese at Rick’s we painted ornaments at Naked Plates then checked out the Festival of Fostering Trees at the American Legion. The festival has about 50 artificial Christmas trees of various shapes, sizes and colors that are raffled off at the end of the weekend. Every tree has a different theme as the winner gets to keep everything attached to said tree such as scratch tickets or dift certificates.

We went home to start decorating the gingerbread house we got at the fair before running down to the village to watch the Festival of Lights parade. There was caroling and lots of elves with candy and by then the snow (first of the season if you don’t count a flurry on October 16) had started!!

Back at home we finished the house, I made dinner (and took a side trip to the ER when I sliced my finger – I’m fine) and we all collapsed early!

Quite a day of festivals and fun.

Took a friend to spa for her birthday and then a bunch of us had apps and drinks at a local Italian place. We ended up going dancing which was so fun even though the band was dreadful. It has been a long time since I danced and I forgot how much I love it.

My neighborhood restaurant has an annual Halloween party where all the waitstaff dress in costume, decorate their sections appropriately, have parades and a big contest.

This is the sort of place that always has a wait and tonight was no different. We saw lots of people we knew and had fun watching the costumes go by. Our waitress was a psycho bride, the section behind us was full of flappers and was booming the soundtrack from Chicago and the Octomom kept walking by with trays of food (and 8 babies in a Baby Bjorn).

I voted for the girl dressed as a Twister game. It looked like her dress was made from the game board and her hat was the spinner.

This week I got an e-mail invite to a local chocolate shop for an open house with a Halloween theme. They had 10 different tasting stations with seasonal popcorn and fudge and truffles and candy making plus lots of deals and sale items. They showcased all the upcoming holiday candies and gift boxes.

There was a wine tasting and some cheese and crackers and 2 different trivia contests – 1 with a candy theme and the other with a Halloween theme. The hardest question on the Halloween theme trivia was “What is the meaning of the word witch”. I texted my sisters but they never replied.

I later found out that the word witch originally was used to describe a wise woman. I think it was pretty witchy of me to attend this event!

Turns out the to be too late in the season to go to the local corn maze but the weather was sunny and warm and the day was beautiful.

OK – so the ride out to the maze was harrowing, the field was wet from several days of rain and the corn was dead and either wilted or downtrodden so even I at 5 feet could see over it. This sent us into giggles and comparisons to the Stonehenge scene in Spinal Tap.

At least we only paid $8 each and went for a long walk on the beach after. Note to self for next year – go in September.

This year’s theme was “Wright in the Drafting Room: Drawings for the Built and the Unbuilt”. There were pre-conference tours of the city and then daily tours of the local Frank Lloyd Wright designed buildings as well as many other architecturally significant sites in the area. It has been an excellent week. Next year: Cincinnati!

Today I volunteered for the Manchester Historic Association’s annual historic house tour. In exchange for spending 2 hours at 1 of the houses taking tickets and advising people to wear shoe covers, I was able to also visit the other 5 sites on tour for free.

All 5 houses on the tour were built in the 1980s and were either Queen Anne or Colonial Revival style and most had been renovated or partially restored to the original colors and style. The 6th site was the Manchester Masonic Temple. We were given a tour by a guy in full mason regalia AND they did a light show where we sat in a windowless room and the sun set in the west then rose in the east – there were even stars on the ceiling – amazing.

After the tours were over there was a reception at another house with wine and nibbles. It was a fun way to spend a beautiful Saturday in the Fall.