Halloween - The Preperations

Halloween in Denmark is a pretty new holiday. Halloween stuff is starting to pop up in stores, but in teeny tiny quantities, but it has a long way to go to get to the US of A. We have been having an annual Halloween party for the past few years with Mary and Jason and decided this year, even if they weren't here, we would still have a party....so we did! Most of our decorations came from stuff we already had and we made a couple trips to IKEA to get lots of black and orange decorations (candles, circular rugs, blanket and even a new orange shower curtain) to help set the Halloween mood. We had some American candy that you can't find here shipped to us along with some spider webs and other fun Halloween stuff. These pictures are all mostly taken during the day, but our flat looked so cool at night with all the candles lit. We had the AIM Halloween station playing all night long as well.

These are just some of our decorations, we had stuff all over the place.

Michael Carving a Pumpkin
Notice his earing's are back in his ears...its part of the Halloween costume.

Entrance
Window Sill
Candles You can see in the background our pumpkin and ghost candle holders glowing
Book case

And then there was our bathroom...AKA the Witch Kitchen
This took the longest because we had to make all the jars.

This is how we had it set up.

If any of our guests got curious and wanted to open the door to see what else was in there we stuck some more stuff in the other side. One of our guest told us she even checked in the shower to see if we had anything behind the shower curtain!
Our Witch Jars

Witch Warts

More Jars

I figured out what's wrong with the washer/dryer...apparently a ghost is living in it ;)

Drink/Dessert Table

The food all got to live in the sun room.
The plate and utensils table

And the food table
For dinner we had Chili, Crackers, Bread, Salad, Banana Nut Bread, and a Cheese Plate.
We had some vegetarians at our party so I attempted Veggie Chili. I just substituted my ground beef with lentils and actually turned out pretty good....(though not as good as the beef) :)

I had found these to make for desert about a month before the party. Then about 4 days before our party I saw that my "Cooking Light" magazine had put this recipe in their magazine as well. They turned out to be pretty sweet, but still managed to have a nice taste to them despite the sweetness.

Next post.....Halloween Costumes...

Nichole the Sloth

Michael is just a few short hours form landing back in Denmark. I think he is going to be quite the sleepy bear when he stumbles out from getting his luggage. This is the first time I will actually go to the airport to "pick him up". It sounds sweet, but I have a hidden agenda. STARBUCKS! The only Starbucks in Denmark is located in the airport right in the entrance hall and just opened right before our trip to Istanbul. We haven't taken advantage of it yet, because we would rather just go through security and get our free drinks in the lounge. Can you blame us? But today, I'm going to go get my steamy cup of coffee and sit and wait for "Hubsters" to come on out. He had asked me to get him something too so when he gets to me, he will have some coffee to waken his sleepy eyes.

The 3 days he was gone went fast. I honestly didn't do much, but it was great. I hit the gym in the morning rather then the evenings which was a nice change, then spent the rest of the days doing a little important stuff, but for the most part turned into a sloth.

Wednesday my friend Sarah came over for dinner. We ate, chatted, drank tea and had a nice time.

Yesterday, I marched myself over to IKEA to get some "Halloween Supplies". We are hosting a Halloween party for some TI'ers and their families, but I needed a few more things. Now, unfortunately, I have to wait a month-ish till its Halloween time. *sigh*

I think our weekend will consist of Michael recuperating from his whirlwind trip to Japan. Then Sunday we are having the two new students (Daniel and Jason) over for a pancake/waffle breakfast. I don't I have had a pancake OR waffle in over a year, so I think my waffle iron will be happy to get to cook again.

Delicious Food

Thank you everyone for your happy birthday's both on and off my blog! I had a great birthday! My wonderful fantastic hubby decided this year to wait on me hand and foot! I had no complaints about that. He made me a delightful birthday dinner of baked gold potato's, a very green salad and a juicy mouthwatering steak. It was, by far the best steak he had ever made. He had recently read an article about making a cheaper steak taste like a pricey steak. We were both pretty shocked as they turned out tasting like something you would get at a really good steak restaurant!

Michael Getting Dinner Ready

Our Yummy Food, Wine and Port

Then, there was the b-day cake!! OMG, the birthday cake. I mentioned yesterday that Michael asked me to pick any recipe and he would make me the cake. Might I add, this cake was to be from scratch.... I finally picked a chocolate almond torte. We unfortunately didn't have any circular trays as the recipe called for, so Michael had to improvise. He insists it is the ugliest cake ever made... I think its cute, but my goodness, it tasted better then my taste buds could have even imagined!!

YUMMMMMMMMMMM!!!

Me at 28!
edited to add: I am putting a piece of goats cheese on a cracker!

Michael is in the air right now probably somewhere over my wonderful and beautiful Russia on his way to Japan. He was very much not looking forward to this quick trip as he senses he will be nothing but tired, tired and more tired for the 3 days he is on the ground before he heads back up here...to be jet lagged some more. Poor guy! :) Now, I am left with the task of finishing the rest of that cake.... and I am up for the challenge!