Animal Crossing New Horizons

Hello Stonehenge!

Last week, I finally received the Gulliver item I wanted the most…Stonehenge!

I can’t believe I had to play Animal Crossing: New Horizons for over 18 months before he finally sent it to me!

Reformation Day/Halloween 2021

Today was the rare occasion where Reformation Day/Halloween actually falls on a Sunday. We started the day at church, where we enjoyed some especially amazing music featuring hymns written by Martin Luther:

We went for a short walk in Forest Park after the service, where we enjoyed the beautiful fall colors (in spite of the wind):

I was so excited to pick up a box of Monster Mash cereal for the Fab Five for breakfast!

This afternoon, we watched The Nightmare Before Christmas for the first time, as well as It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. For dinner, I made potato-parsnip soup, cheese and jam turnovers, and butterbeer…it was the perfect meal for today!

Dessert was the Jell-O Halloween Special, as advertised by Harlow Wilcox in the 1940s…”Looks like a dish of sunshine all dressed up, doesn’t it?”

I chose my costume in Animal Crossing: New Horizons with great care…I’m a hot dog!

I tracked down the Czar of Halloween right away.

I think my neighbors enjoyed the festivities, too!

This was a busier Halloween than most for us, and it was a very fun day!

Costumes, Animal Crossing Style

Jack, the Czar of Halloween, will be visiting in just a week…here’s a look at some costume ideas I came up with that seem equal to the event. (My personal favorite for this year is the hot dog suit.)

And just for fun, a Roald cosplay I put together. The beak isn’t quite right, but I think it’s a pretty good approximation, don’t you?

What costume are you planning on wearing this year?

Oktoberfest 2021

For the second year in a row, we didn’t get to go to the inaugural Great North American Oktoberfest in St. Louis (and at this point, I’m kind of thinking that the event will never happen), but we did have a happy Markel Family Oktoberfest at home! I started last week by assembling all of our favorite German foods from Aldi’s Deutsche Küche:

For lunch, we had cheddar and beer fondue with homemade pretzels, German pickles, and Nürnberger Bratwurst, plus more pretzels with beer mustard and nacho cheese sauce for those who don’t like fondue:

Dinner was schnitzel with optional Jäger sauce, spaetzle, sauerkraut, artichoke and cheese strudel, and red cabbage with apples:

And dessert was, of course, Black Forest cherry torte:

I also had a fun Oktoberfest celebration with my neighbors in Animal Crossing: New Horizons:

It wasn’t quite the Oktoberfest I had hoped for (again), especially after I derailed our pretzel-making to go to Urgent Care to have a splinter removed (that was unpleasant!), but it was a fun day of celebrating our German heritage!

Fireworks Season

Pretty much the best thing about August is the Sunday night fireworks shows in Animal Crossing New Horizons. Here’s a look back at each of the five shows I’ve enjoyed this year. I dressed up in a different kimono (with coordinating kimono sandals) each time to really capture the Japanese festival spirit, and once I even carried a parasol, mostly because Roald was concerned that the fireworks were so bright, we’d need “fireworkscreen.” I also branched out a bit and designed a few more fireworks myself, including a pair of them to commemorate Tokyo 2020.

Now that the big, in-game summer event is over, I guess it’s time to start looking forward to fall!

Fruit as Fashion

Only in Animal Crossing could dressing like fruit be considered fashion!

I’ve been working on collecting the various fruit outfits, which consist of a hat, dress, and umbrella. There are some you can craft (based on the various native produce…I made only the peach items, since that’s my island’s fruit), and sets you can buy. Most came pretty easily, but it took four of us on four different islands over a month to finally find the strawberry umbrella at Nook’s Cranny once I started looking for it!

My dressing up as fruit may have had some unintended (and unfortunate!) consequences, though:

Which fruit look is your favorite?