I have lazily managed to make 6 jars of borscht chawanmushi (well, it's in the oven now), puree and freeze something like a gallon of strawberries, and fix a pot of beef and beet green stew. Not bad for not trying very hard!

How is something with made with beets green? [eta: It's beef and beet greens stew, isn't it? Just realized I probably parsed it totally wrong.]

Also that is a lot of food for not trying very hard.

Yes, beet greens. Beet greens stew and beet green stew sound the same in my head...

Franny is going as Luna Lovegood this year, Isaac as Anakin Skywalker. And they decided to trick or treat for UNICEF this year, er, after I assured them we have enough candy to give out that there will be some left over for them. But we do give out a ton of candy every year.

Also beet greens are delicious. Spinach wishes it tasted like beet greens.

Franny is going as Luna Lovegood this year, Isaac as Anakin Skywalker. And they decided to trick or treat for UNICEF this year, er, after I assured them we have enough candy to give out that there will be some left over for them. But we do give out a ton of candy every year.

Does collecting for UNICEF preclude accepting candy? Cuz if any kids came to my door collecting for UNICEF I would totally clean out my stash of change (I have no folding money on hand right now) and then give a double portion of candy.

I suppose they could do both, WS.

I suppose they could do both, WS.

It's common to do both. Matilda has done it.

Burrell, a cursory search for whether or not it is ok for kids who are collecting for UNICEF can accept candy yields no specific etiquette. The only real hits I get are for "is it ok to take my baby who is too little to eat candy out Trick or Treating to show off his costume, but not take the candy?" Which tends to get the response of, "that would be weird, what are your neighbors supposed to do, say 'um ok nice costume, have a nice day'? Either take the candy and give it away or collect for UNICEF." So maybe they should not ask for candy on top of the donation, but if candy is offered they can have it. I'd bet more often than not people will offer.

I've never been tricking or treating--was yet another thing we looked wistfully at, and made grabalicious hands. I've dolled up for parties, and I assume if I lived somewhere with a house I'd dress to open the door--but the times that came out, the housemates wouldn't play along. We ended up leaving the candy outside or turn the lights off.

In Vancouver, a couple years ago, I went with BFF to find last-minute doohickies for her flapper vampire outfit, and I put on all the black clothes I have (trivial exercise) and we traded off candy giving. The porch was enthusiastically decorated appropriately, but the nearly-not-literal killer was that Lars decided to creep out the doorbell, so you got random spooky sounds.

Krav holidays were fun--that's when I started costuming myself, and they were run and exhausting. The idea of doing it for kids that might care, and rather they do care, and they want their fingers back and the thing on his head is clearly trying to eat his brain.

I am always remiss in taking pictures, period, especially of babies. And even though his little tummy was colicky, I was still able to get a couple new shots. None of C and the baby, because the two of them require a faster lens than I own