Almost Thanksgiving

Ron doesn't believe in magic anymore. Hidai said it's magic that we got him to believe this far. I just don't get it. How can you not believe in magic? I told him, everyone needs a bit of magic in their lives. But nothing. Fairies aren't real because it's absurd that people can fly,  Harry Potter is just an actor, and he doesn't need money so no teeth fairy anymore. No witches and no wizards also. He said 'oh, fine' to Santa and the Easter Bunny because they bring him things, but it was quite clear he doesn't believe in them too. How is he related to me?
I still have Yon. Maybe he will believe. One more chance to fix this serious error we made in educating the young.
All this discussion came about because we were walking home from the doctor's office (Ron got the last of his vaccinations. That's it for the next 10 years. Thank god), and we saw a house with a Christmas tree full of lights and decorations. So I told them about one of our neighbours who already had her tree up on November 20th, because she said her life is need of some fairy lights. Truth be told, I am totally ready for some fairy lights and a Christmas tree, maybe some Christmas songs, and definitely some Christmas treats. There is just something so... I don't know... Happy, or maybe hopeful in Christmas, Hannuka and all the festive season.
Halloween is officially the beginning of the festive season, and we did try to have a good Halloween this year, so we found ourselves organising a mini Halloween party downstairs in the common area for the kids - we couldn't decide if we want to take the kids treat-or-tricking or not, so we asked if we could do it in the complex, and ended up with organising something for parents and kids who wanted to come. We actually had around 9 parents and their kids (a huge turn-out for this building apparently). The kids had fun and that's what important, but I found myself missing our lovely Treat-orTricking in Gib with Laura & Mick.

Unfortunately there is a very big gap between Halloween and Christmas, and add to that the fact that we are not so festive at the moment. It's mostly the whole keeping a diet thing. Not baking is not festive. We find ourselves walking around the house mumbling "we want doughnuts... We want chocolate... Why is there no cake in THIS HOUSE!!!!"
15 more days to Hannuka, and believe me I am counting each and every hour until it's officially doughnuts, latkes and candles time.

So today in order to introduce some festive feeling we made our vegetables in an "American Thanksgiving" style. I made mashed-potatoes (everyones favourite), maple-glazed sweet potatoes, sweet cooked carrot (not really American but it seemed fitting), mushroom pie (with diet fitting filo pastry but still), steamed vegetables, and of course - pumpkin pie, and some mixed fruits crumble. My aim was to use all the veg and fruits I had in the house. Mission accomplished. It took me around 5 hours to cook and clean-up, and it took them around 15 minutes to eat.
I had my Thanksgiving.