Melting Ice, Falling Leaves and a Birthday

It's nice and warm in here, but outside it's overcast and it looks cold. Maybe hearing the furnace running makes me think it's colder than it really is. Mia and Gina are coming into town tonight to visit for 5 days. Mia's 19th Birthday is on Monday and with her birthday and Hallowe'en the next day, it has always made for one of the most fun times of the year! She and Gina have a "calendar of events" that they made up well over a month ago. We'll be apple picking, carving pumpkins, eating gummi finger french fries and crunchy ooze filled candy bugs and watching lots of Hallowe'en movies.

As I was making my Reliv shake this morning, I noticed one of the ice cube trays needed to be emptied...the cubes looked like they had been in the freezer too long and needed replacing. I emptied the cubes into the sink and decided (as I have time and again over many years since I was a kid) to run some hot water to watch them melt. I know it's a waste of energy, but I figured it's ok in the name of a "science demonstration". As the ice was melting, I began to get all philosophical and weird. "Now what am I observing?", I asked myself. And the answer came quickly, "The passage of time."

We will be celebrating Mia's 19th Birthday with a cake while she is here. And we will do some of the Hallowe'en things that we've always done over the years. While Mia was being born in the upstairs bedroom, Joe and Adele were taping a Disney TV (DTV) music video show, done like MTV. It had all Hallowe'en songs or spooky type songs, put to Disney animation. We're going to watch that too . . . one of our favorite traditions.

I like when traditions tie it all together. Traditions are the things we do to enjoy ourselves and each other as the ice melts. One thing Mia won't be wearing as she blows out the candles on her cake, is that little black plastic witches hat that she wore on her First Birthday. And Nana won't be here to wash her hands even before they need washing. But . . . we're going to have a lot of fun and eat lots of junky candy and sing, "Sweet dreams are made of this . . . "