What? Like your mom doesn't send you salad tongs for every season.
As aforementioned, Jamie and I went to Boston for one of the world's largest pumpkin weigh-offs at The Topsfield Fair. He was as giddy
And I'm not talking about the female variety.
I admittedly don't have room to talk. I relished being in a region that celebrates fall and Halloween. Where every other house was decorated, pumpkins were revered and where Salem's witch population provides for great entertainment.
Just so long as you stay on their good side.
Jamie and I stayed at Fox Pond B&B in Marblehead, a quaint coastal town outside of Salem. Our first night, we really wanted some fresh seafood so upon the recommendation of the B&B's owner we ate at The Barnacle, a cozy seafood haunt on the water. I am not much of a seafood lover but make the exception "When in Rome" and resolved to try some shrimp or lobster.
Until I was told that pumpkin ravioli with butternut squash cream sauce was the daily special. And how was it?
But really, the must-see destination for any Halloween lover was Salem. There was a profusion of fall colors, oodles of tacky tourists vying to see the sundry of witch museums and best of all, witches. Or at least folks dressed up as them.
More than 40,000 people descend upon Salem in October. My only goal was to buy something that I could display every year so I could profess we bought it from The Witch Capital of the World.
Easier said than done.
I dragged Jamie to all the tacky tourist stores and I was tempted by their wares but never swayed.
Until I saw IT. The bain to my wenchy...errr...witchy existence: a witch's hat with flowing tendrils. It was like the Sorting Hat on Harry Potter. From the moment I put it on, it knew me and I knew we had been separated at birth.
Unfortunately, Jamie was not in agreement. Much to his chagrin, I insisted upon wearing The Hat the rest of the day and he had his own coping mechanisms for our new addition.
"Why are you not walking with me?" I accused.
"I am walking with you. It's just far away."
And so it is in the life of a witch.
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21 Comments:
Yowzers! I don't think this is a rated-G picture LOL! Hey, I like the "sorting hat" it's cute. The sunglasses add a modern twist, and your sweater looks cozy warm. I am so loving wearing capris and t-shirts still, though. I laughed so hard at your post...I ought to embarass DH like you do (I do it naturally, but I think I should add a hat to my everydaywear and see what happens!) Next topic: Have you seen the Martha Stewart Living mag for Oct? I think you need to cut into the Great Pumpkin and put in a "raven" behind the cagelike bars---You've GOT to look on the cover of this issue. I just know you have sooo much time on your hands, so here's another suggestion: look at cakewrecks.blogspot.com for some intense fun. My favorites are the Super Mario Bros. cake & the Muppet Show cake, but there is practically nothing more *fun* than laughing at all the truly rotten cakewrecks. Oh, except delighting in gourmet ravioli?!
My latest new tradition is watching you deal wit the giant pumpkin obsession. SEriously it makes my day. sorry.
Cute Hat! We don't have any unusual traditons other than ending up at the MIL's house at the end.
I thought of you on Sunday. When we were leaving church, we saw a GIANT pumpkin in the back of a truck in the parking lot!
That's some big ravioli sister! Love the hat! Maybe you should wear it every day in October...since the hubby loves it so much and all. :) Fun reading! Happy Day!
Ooh! Butternut squash and pumpkin ravioli?! Delicious!
I'm not really a Halloween person. There. I said it. It's not that I don't enjoy spooky things (not horror-psycho things; there's a difference), I just don't like getting out all the stuff and putting it back. And then getting out the Thanksgiving and putting it back. And then Christmas. And back. I figure FALL decorations and then Christmas. And then nothing until...I put out Easter baskets? Or a flag for the Fourth? Yeah, I'm not much into decorating.
But I will live vicariously through you because honestly? I love that you got to go to Salem and I'm a bit jealous. I love history --even spooky, sad, witch-hunt history. :)
We can't get pumpkins too early here unless we want to display them in the house. If we put them outside then the crickets and other bugs dig into them and the heat liquifies their insides. We learned this the hard way...
We don't have too many Halloween traditions. I try really hard to make sure each kid gets to be whatever they want for trick or treat... and we did get our Witch Kitchen pulled together - that will probably be a tradition from now on! :) I'm more of a Christmas girl, but Halloween is growing on me!!
I love fall & halloween too! Your trip sounds like so much fun. I have always wanted to go to Salem.
Pumpkin ravioli sounds wonderful. I'll have to google it & see if there are any places around here that offer it. :)
It all sounds like so much fun!!! The hat is cute!
Cute hat! You mean he couldn't put up with the hat after all you have put up with with the pumpkin?! :) Salem sounds like a fun place to visit for Halloween. I like the fun stuff from Halloween-- carving pumpkins, making Halloween shaped cookies, dressing up. I don't care for the spooky/scary stuff.
LOVE IT! You have just the fun loving personality that occasionally shows itself in me...usually when I will be embarrassed to my limit (read...grown woman in a kiddy bounce house at my ten year reunion...yea...real highlight to my year).
I too LOVE Halloween...It is a true celebration of the imagination! I have spent hours pouring over ideas for costumes this year. How about you? What will your kiddos be for the big day?
You are so funny! I'm totally lovin' it. And the hat.. HOT. I'd walk holding your hand. :)
I adore Halloween traditions! I have a traditional soup I make every year called Witches Brew (my mom made it every year too and it is YUMMY) along with homemade cornbread. I look forward to it all year!
Salem would be FUN! I hope to go there sometime in October too!
I read the following this morning and just had to copy it to ya'll:
Connolly, a 53-year old manufacturing engineer in his day job, told the Globe that competitive pumpkin-growing “just middle-aged guys having fun.”
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/27046565/
Your hat matches your hair!
Amber, you must find a way to hide that hat and then spring it on your husband when he least expects it--like when he's come back from the bathroom in that fancy restaurant.
Wait, let me get this straight....the man who thinks it's normal to obsess over a large pumpkin was embarrassed by a little witch hat in Salem of all places? That's just hypocrisy if you ask me!
On a different note, caught a clip for the local news the other night and they were showing the local "great pumpkin" and groaned to myself. I have to read about pumpkins on the blog-o-sphere and now I have to see it on the local news, too? Damn October! HAHAHA
(okay, I know sarcasm comes across poorly in writing so that comment was supposed to funny....just in case you missed that.)
Maybe if you wore the hat by itself?
;)
Haha! Great hat. Did you really walk around with it on? Sounds like a fun place.
I know someone whose ancestor was one of the "witches" tried in Salem. When I found out, I gasped and said how horrible that must have been for his family to find out. He said no -- they actually took it as a point of pride!
you look so cute in the hat. i'm glad you bought it, even if jamie didn't like it.
our halloween tradition for a long time was going to our church's fall festival. when they were younger, we also walked the neighborhood either before or after the festival. and when they got older, we all worked the festival and enjoyed spending the evening with our church family.
LOVE the hat!
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