By Cheryl Bac
E-mail Cheryl Bac
About this blog: I'm a wife, stay-at-home mom, home cook, marathon runner, and PhD. I recently moved to the Silicon Valley after completing my PhD in Social Psychology and becoming a mother one month apart. Before that, I ran seven marathons incl...
(More)About this blog: I'm a wife, stay-at-home mom, home cook, marathon runner, and PhD. I recently moved to the Silicon Valley after completing my PhD in Social Psychology and becoming a mother one month apart. Before that, I ran seven marathons including Chicago and Boston. Exercise is an integral part of my life. I hope to one day go back to long distance running and tackle the New York City Marathon. Right now I run after my one year old son. Although I am a stay-at-home mom, we are rarely "at home." My mom also stayed at home with my brother and me. She warned me that, although rewarding, it can be isolating. So, with her help, I learned the importance of getting out into the community and meeting other mothers. On the rare occasion when I am at home and have a hand or two free, I squeeze in time to scrapbook. As a new mom, many challenges are thrown my way. I hope my opinions, triumphs, and struggles help experienced parents reminisce, new parents cope, and parents-to-be get an honest glimpse of what the first years of motherhood can entail.
(Hide)View all posts from Cheryl Bac
With Thanksgiving right around the corner, most people are no longer thinking about Halloween. We still have a couple small pumpkins decorating our home, but instead of spiders and bats, we now have leaves and turkeys.
We’d love to be with grandparents for Thanksgiving, but it hasn’t worked out yet. However, this year grandma surprised us and flew out to visit us for Halloween and it was a great treat. As I look back on our Halloween celebration together this year, I appreciate it more and more.
It was grandma’s first Halloween in California and we were very excited to take her trick-or-treating, carve pumpkins, and celebrate with her.
It’s very different when grandma visits us during the school year vs over the summer. She gets a glimpse at our daily life. The kids’ school day, their after school activities, and the rest of our routine. But adding Halloween into the mix made this trip extra special. Halloween created a very nice balance of special events and activities along with gifts and candy (our kids exchange some of their candy for a toy after trick-or-treating). From the school parades, to
the Zoppe Italian Family Circus, to Disney on Ice, to
Trick-or-Treat Street, there were so many family-friendly events to go to.
We hope grandma had a wonderful time visiting, despite catching a cold from us. Maybe she can fly out again next year to celebrate with us again. We may not get a week or two off of school, but Halloween is such a festive time and grandparents make the holidays, no matter which holiday it happens to be, extra special.
