Storms, Spooky Dinner, and Pumpkin Walk

"The night was dark, and a cold wind blew, driving the clouds, furiously and fast, before it. There was one black, gloomy mass that seemed to follow him: not hurrying in the wild chase with the others, but lingering sullenly behind, and gliding darkly and stealthily on. He often looked back at this, and, more than once, stopped to let it pass over; but, somehow, when he went forward again, it was still behind him, coming mournfully and slowly up, like a shadowy funeral train." -Charles Dickens

It was a (mostly) fun Wednesday! The bad part is that we have had terrible bouts of severe weather in this part of NC today. It has been on and off all day and we had a tornado warning today when I was at work (rotational activity spotted about 6 miles from my office building). There is still bad weather in the area tonight and we are watching the live radar and news reports right now as things continue to happen. Below are some pictures I took from my office window this afternoon. One is the clouds from a storm passing north of town, the other of the rain that followed:





On a happier note, we took part in a long-withstanding Andrews family tradition tonight. As many of you know, my family was always big on traditions, and I for one am OBSESSED with all things traditional!!! I have great plans for when David and I have children one day - of how we can incorporate traditions from my family and traditions from David's family, into own own family (as well as make some traditions of our own).

So, that being said, one of the Andrews traditions is spooky dinner. Growing up, my family used to do this on Halloween evening right before going trick-or-treating. But we decided to do it tonight a few days early. So we headed to my parents house to see what crazy, scary, and gross creations my mother had come up with (my grandparents and uncle joined the fun, too).

When we arrived, we got to check out the awesome decorating job that my mom did for the evening (by the way, tradition dictates that you use candles and dim the lights before partaking in spooky dinner)...








The food was especially gross this year. The menu included the following: "Scabs on a Slab," "Blood and Guts," "Bug Sauce," "Slime Potatoes," "Ghoulish Green Beans," and, of course, "Toes."




David and my Uncle Chuck enjoyed the food...as noted by these looks of intense concentration...


The other tradition we did tonight is the "Pumpkin Walk." As a little girl, my father would go out in the woods with a lighted pumpkin and walk towards us (in the pitch dark) so that all that could be seen was that spooky pumpkin (and all the while he would be making spooky noises). So I got to introduce this tradition to David. David held the speaker for the spooky music...


While my Dad was the "walker"...




We totally enjoyed our spooky night! Looking forward to Halloween on Sunday!!! :-)