November 1: Blessings On It, Chocolate Blessings, Halloween Blessings

...Blessings on it, how the Ghost exulted!  How it bared its breadth of breast, and opened its capacious palm, and floated on, out-pouring, with a generous hand, its bright and harmless mirth on everything within its reach...

Chocolate blessings

I love this passage about the Ghost of Christmas Present.  Of course, the Ghost of Christmas Present is the ghost voted most likely to succeed out of Dickens' three yuletide spirits.  Aside from those two creepy little kids hanging out under his robes, he seems like a fun spirit to party with.  And he blesses everyone and everything he sees.

Last night, the Ghost of Halloween Present blessed me.  Yes, it was cold.  Yes, it took me over an hour to apply my daughter's makeup.  And yes, we got a late start on trick-or-treating.  But we had a great time, and, as you can tell by the picture, my kids made a great haul.  That is a full-size Baby Ruth spilling out of the pumpkin.  We have three more pumpkins full of Halloween spoils.  It was a good night, and I really felt blessed.

Half-way through the evening, I forgot about how cold I was, how the Milky Ways were freezing solid in the plastic pumpkins.  I enjoyed seeing my kids run from house to house.  Actually, my daughter skipped.  My son sort of plodded because he was wearing snow boots.  They were both the best little ghouls in the world.

On this Blessing Thursday, I am going to end with a picture of the two biggest blessings of my life.  My little dragon and my little Sally from A Nightmare Before Christmas.  Yes, they drive me crazy sometimes, and I was ready to leave my son out in the cold at certain points of our All Hallow's Eve adventure.  But they are the greatest joys I have.

Saint Marty is now going to eat a chocolate blessing he stole from his son's pumpkin.

My Halloween blessings