Gratitude: Illustrated.

The above is one of my favorite photos of all time. It was taken by Gerald Waller in 1946 as he toured an Austrian orphanage with the Red Cross. Most likely the first pair of new shoes this kid had ever owned or seen. 

Shoes, people.

May all of you experience this level of joy and gratitude in the simple things this holiday season.

**P.S. Composed Fresh returning soon to regularly scheduled posts.**

Goulish Greetings

We are happy to report that we made it through a successful Halloween 2009, healthy and happy... and with slightly more expanded waistlines.

Barbara and I spent the day together doing all sorts of fun fall-themed activities and resting up for the big night ahead. Some highlights of the scary variety:

* Exhibiting my best zombie dance sequence ala "Thriller" in the kitchen in front of her saucer-wide eyes. Yes, that was truly frightening. We don't need to see that again for at least another year.


* Attempting a new Gluten-Free cupcake recipe for my sweetie. Found this little catastrophe in the pages of Parents magazine this month. They look good, yes. Upon tasting one, the comment from him was, "They're good (hesitation here), but they're missing something." Yes they are.... that tasty gluten.

While a much-anticipated nap was going down, it gave me a chance to whip up treats of the adult variety. Namely, pudding shots. They were a big hit with the frozen moms and dads freezing their hineys off that night. I think our cul-de-sac will be a destination spot next year.


The recipe for this sweet little sample of chocolatey goodness is as follows:

Pudding Shots yields 48
Small box of instant chocolate pudding
1/4 C. milk
8 oz. Cool-Whip
1/2 C. Vanilla Vodka
3/4 C. Kahlua

I prepared mine in a large ziploc bag, smushing all the ingredients together real well. I cut the end off a corner and piped them into small disposable sample cups and Viola! Work fast because it sets rather quickly. I found the cups at GFS. One bag will do ya a while. They come in 250 qty. Read: Plenty stocked up for the holiday season.





Trick-or-treating commenced at 6pm sharp, so we headed over to little buddy Nick's house. Nick rocked a Batman getup. So the Caped Crusader and his trusty sidekick, er, Elmo, returned an hour and a half later, slightly frozen and toting buckets of sugary goodness. The booty was spread out promptly and taken inventory of... again, and again, and again, etc. I think he's still probably dumping his bucket out yet this evening for closer examination. The beauty of it is, neither one of them wanted to EAT the candy. They were just happy to look at it! Yeay for the simplicity of toddlers!



Fricano's pizza and leftover pudding shots rounded out the festivities for our spooktacular night. Hope it was a happy Halloween for all of you!