The perfect fall weekend and cookie lessons

It was quite the weekend I had. 

My son Ted and his girlfriend Katherine came up from D.C. to enjoy a beautiful autumn weekend.  

On Saturday, we went hiking in the mountains, had a picnic lunch, went to two local wineries for tastings, purchased pumpkins, went to a corn maze (which I would still be wandering helpless and lost in if it wasn't for T and K), and made an autumn dinner of pork with an apple cider reduction, spinach gratin, pumpkin and rosemary risotto, and a pumpkin pie.  After dinner, we bundled up and had mulled wine by firelight in the garden

Yours truly was tired at the end of the day.

On Sunday, we made cookies.

Donning my pink apron, Ted and Katherine put my Halloween cutters to good use.

I took them through the entire process of making the icing, outlining, flooding, and adding the details. 

Look at the concentration on his face!

When Ted was a little boy, he and I used to love watching the old Charlie Chan movies from the 1930's, so I ordered one from Netflix to have on while we worked.  It was chilly and rainy outside, making it the perfect afternoon to be inside doing cookies.

I thought they did an amazing job (both are serious overachievers!).  

After cookies we made chicken and wild rice soup, an autumnal salad (arugula, pears, feta, and spiced walnuts with a dijon mustard and maple syrup vinegrette), and gluten free bread.  Dinner was enjoyed with a glass of wine from one of the local wineries.  

After dinner we decided to watch a scary movie to give the day a little punch of Halloween!

How cute are they?

BEAUTIFUL MEMORIES TO TREASURE FOREVER!