This was my treat today:

I found a new tart yogurt place in the mall! 70 calories for 4 oz (and she weighed it) so I did not feel guilty for adding coconut (sweetened I’m sure, but, heck, it’s Halloween and I’ve eaten ZERO chocolate) and kiwi! Yum!

Our very first Trick-or-Treater was a little girl, about four years old dressed as Wonder Woman, and she was deaf. Her mom coached her through the whole process, and I have to admit I shut the door and cried just a little. This is why I’m NEVER on door duty! I can’t handle door duty!

But Chris was serious that he was not giving out ginger candy – no way, no how!

I noticed our T-or-Ter’s were mostly boys and all (except the first little girl) were accompanied by dads. Did ALL the moms get stuck with door duty this year?

PS. I also broke down and bought my first and only pair of UGGS today with a Nordstrom gift certificate I had from returning my birthday present from my dad. Now I look like EVERY college girl in town, but, man, are they comfortable! I bought the medium brown ones and only had a minor regret when I realized the store next door had teal ones….but I didn’t have a gift certificate at that store, now did I? Our house is freezing so I’ll be wearing them nightly and trying to keep them from becoming a very expensive dog toy. Just thought I’d share.

I’ve been reading Facebook posts about people digging into their Halloween candy, and I’m soooo glad we don’t have any Fun Size ANYTHING in the house at the moment. We had some at work, and I stayed FAR away. I keep reminding myself I can eat any size anytime of year so why eat it now?

Plus I have these nummers at home so why would I need anything else?:

Here are MY Halloween treats!

The fabulous Chocolate-Covered Katie and I did a little trade – she was nice enough to take a bunch of scrapbooking supplies off my hands and THEN she was nice enough to send me a gorgeous selection of Fudge Babies as a Thank You. Hmm, that sounds like a whole lot of niceness coming from her end, and all I did was run to the post office! That, my friends, is why the Interwebs ROCK! Especially my fab foodie friends of the Interwebs! What a great group of women!

As a special no-calorie treat for Halloween, let me introduce the rest of our furry family who you haven’t met yet:

This is Derby. He’s a purebred Maine Coon who we got in Upstate New York in 2000. He’s a big love and a great cat! He also has a heart condition (common with male Maine Coons) and has his own feline cardiologist. Fancy! He’s bigger than he looks in this photo, and when we have him shaved it’s a never-ending laughfest on our part. Sounds cruel, but he LOVES it when he’s shaved. He struts around like David Bowie in UGG boots. I’ll post a pic next time we do it. He loves it almost as much as he loves a fire in the fireplace.

So we have the heir and the spare:

Mia came into our family when we went to the Pet Store to buy dog food. The rescue people were there so we started to look for a cat for Chris’ grandma whose cat had recently passed away. Just when I thought we were ready to move on and get what we came for, I realized Chris could not stop petting this one cat and the look on his face was unmistakeable: this cat is coming home with us.

Mia is a Maine Coon mix and though she’d never seen a dog in her life, she and Cady worked it out pretty quickly (unlike Derby and Cady who sat on opposite sides of a baby gate for 6 months before coming to some sort of agreement). Mia has a chronic ear condition and is the only member of our family who has had laser surgery.*

Ah, pets.

Happy Halloween everyone! Can’t wait to see costume pics. We may go out after giving out ginger treats. Chris even has a costume! I’ll give you a hint: it’s from a Bill Murray movie. Any guesses?

*I realized this isn’t true! I had Lasik! Duh!

I often have things I’m MADLY in love with … until I’m MADLY in love with something else. I’m fickle like that (but I’m ALWAYS in love with Chris, duh). So here are two of my favorite things this week:

Super green points!

These are my new adorable re-usable “baggies.” I’d seen some like them on one of my favorite design sites, but they were $10 each and since I’ve been Cheapy McCheaperson lately I figured I might be able to do better (not better as in I made them myself, that would be the BEST answer, but I just don’t have the time or skills). I ordered from Britgaldesigns but there seem to be a few sellers, and they’re about half the price of the ones I’d seen before. I used the super cute apple one today to carry my 100-calories tortilla and one of my other favorite things of the week:

How cute is that?

I first came across Heart Thrives in Madison Market when I was panicking about possibly catching the flu from Chris and frantically searching for Sambucol. Their adorable heart shape caught my attention, but then I noticed that they were Vegan, all-natural, low glycemic, low sodium, wheat free AND dairy free! Get out! The only *teensy* drawback for me was that they contain soy. But there are only about 150 calories per heart, and they come in lots of yummy flavors! I love them, but don’t *love* them like I have to eat three of them (if ya know what I mean). Pop one in the microwave for 10 seconds, and you have the perfect warm, winter treat! Here are some specs:

I absolutely love companies that offer variety packs (à la the ginger people). I also love companies that provide all the nutritionals so The Healthy Baking Company rocks in my book!

As far as Sambucol goes, I still got a cold but maybe I didn’t catch it in time. *shrug*

Gee I’ve been spending a lot of time shopping online. I bought something new today and will need some new recipes soon but I’ll let you know when my UPS man comes to visit!

I told you I love The Ginger People! I was BEYOND excited to see that they offered a variety pack (Original Ginger Chews, Hot Coffee Ginger Chews, Spicy Apple Ginger Chews, Gin Gins and Gin Gins BOOST) that I could give out as Halloween candy without bringing any chocolate into the house! The Ginger People assure me that these treats are all-natural, free of gluten, high fructose corn syrup and anything artificial!

So many yummy flavors to "chews" from!

I’ve been sneaking a few here and there, and I don’t even feel guilty!

Halloween at our house consists of one of us holding the dog in another room while the other appreciates the kids’ costumes and hands out candy. Chris says this year he’s on dog duty. He’s convinced we’re going to get egged. I think not!

I’ll let you know Sunday morning!

PS Don’t forget to set your clocks back!