THIS IS HOW WE LIVE IN AMERICA!

     Halloween is, mostly, a kids' celebration. Unless the adults themselves feel like celebrating! Reina's presence in our house and the desire to expose her to some of the American culture prompted me to consider reviving my Halloween zeal, which died out with my own children growing up.

     What to do, what to do? Reina and Sonny are too old to go trick-or-treating, neither would they put on the costumes. I almost gave up the idea, when I got an e-mail from a local tea-house. They were going to have a Halloween party! On the program were, of course, the teas, the treats, and old, scary Sherlock Holmes movies. 

     Eureka!

Roberta and I did a lot of the errands that day. Here she is, with her hair freshly "washed and set" in a salon, looking, for all the world, like a Victorian matron in her rain bonnet!
     As we came home, the kids were busy carving pumpkins. I tried to persuade Sonny to go to the tea-house with us, but, perhaps, he felt that, it wouldn't be a very masculine thing to do, because he kept refusing. I asked again, just before all of us, ladies, left home, and he seemed like he was ready to give in, but I was in a hurry and couldn't spend any more time trying to convince him.
     We had a bigger table reserved at the tea-house, but only three of us showed up. I didn't really mind it when the owner began to sit other revelers with us, but decided to try Sonny again, and, lo and behold, the little stinker agreed! Of course, now I had to leave the party and go back home to pick him up. As I later found out, Taka, who before outright refused to join us, by that time also considered going along, but I didn't know about it and only picked up Sonny.          My resourceful son put a little table on the porch with the bowl of candy for trick-or-treaters and left a cute note: "Take a handful and don't cheat. The Jack o'Lantern is watching!"

I took the picture later on.
The note, obviously, worked,
because there was still some candy in the bowl!

  

      






The tables at the tea-house were set beautifly!

Some people came in costumes, like one of them, who was

dressed as a skunk and this couple, where the lady had small imp's horns on her head and the gentleman sported a smart fedora. Every time I tried to take a picture of them, it came out blurrry, and they, for some reason, appeared mysteriously lit up from behind!

     

     We each got a pot of tea and treats on a pretty tiered contraption, whose name I don't know.

Here, Sonny, getting in the spirit of things, tries to daintily cut his pumpkin muffin with tiny knife and fork. His cup had a strange porcelain bar across it's opening. I later found out that, its called a mustache grill, and is, probably, used to keep the gentlemen's facial adornments out of the tea!

We watched two Sherlock Holmes movies, while the staff poured pumpkin soup into our bowls. Sonny didn't like it, but Reina and Roberta had two helpings. I dutifully slurped my soup, but didn't particularly enjoyed it. We each had some cute little sandwiches cut in the shape of pumpkins and a good amount of cookies with pumpkin and ginger creme. Yum-m-m-m!

I worried, if Roberta could endure the long evening, sitting in a chair, but she seemed to have taken it in stride. She found the common ground with the lady, who sat at the same table with us: cats. Apparently, the lady had six of them. No judgment, but I silently congratulated myself on stopping after I adopted just two felines. 

 The movies ended, we finished our tea in comfortable laze. Sonny, unfortunately, decided to try a new thing, and ended up with the sassaparilla tea - a horrible concoction. He manfully bore his fate and refused to share my brew: Meyer Lemon. Do you know, why I chose it? Meyer is my father's name! Its funny: in the States, dad came to love going to the cafes, tea-houses and restaurants. I think, his spirit was with us, partaking in our enjoyment and remarking, like he often did in life, while sitting at a cafe's table: "This is how we live in this America!"