Halloweekend
This entry was posted on 11/1/2011 9:04 AM and is filed under blather, Family Fun, Holidays.
Halloween is fun, no two ways about it.
For the last ten years or so, we've been fortunate in the weather on Halloween. The end of October is a tricky time here in the north; we could have seventy degrees, we could have three feet of snow.
This year, because of all the rain, the trees turned later than they have the last few years and half of them still have leaves. I'm looking at two trees out my front window that are still pretty green, in fact.
Saturday night, we went to Vi and Andy's house for their annual chili/pumpkin carving party. The house was packed with family, the yard was full of little kids and the chili was delicious. Vi is a superb cook.
I didn't carve a pumpkin but Zack did. He carved a very good profile of Dracula into a gourd and gave it to me. Since he'd arrived on his bike, he had no way to bring it home and no interest in a jack-o-lantern anyway.
We brought it home and lit it in the kitchen to get a good look at it, since it didn't' look like much in the cold light of day.
In the dark, it looked brilliant!
Sunday was another unseasonably warm day and Jay and Josie used the morning to put away all our deck furniture.
I hate that; it means summer is truly over. But I think I'd hate letting the first snow ruin all the furniture, too.
Jay moved the grill away from the driveway. Very good move on his part; last year the first big blizzard was icy and made using the grill, which had been covered by the snow blower with two feet of the stuff, impossible to use and we (Jay, of course) like cooking out all year.
The deck looks enormous with no furniture on it. I feel like I should be hosting a ball out there.
Monday was the big day.
Punkin has been so pumped up about the holiday that almost from the moment she started talking a few months ago, all she says is "HAPPY HADDOWEENS!"
She was dressed in a dinosaur costume and the last I saw of her, she was running in circles in the yard, her bucket o candy spilling goodies in her wake. She didn't seem to care.
As usual, we had all gathered at Katie and Mike's. The bonfire was cooking in the front yard, where Mike and Grand pa held down the fort. Meg was hosting a party for her friends in the house. They all looked great in their costumes. Several of them were real housewives from wherever. I didn't even recognize Meg until she spoke to me. There was a ton of food in the house and beer and wine for the grownups so we had fortifications when we hit the streets with the little kids.
I haven't had any little kids in a few years so I'm glad to have this crowd to trick or treat with. By the time Punkin is too old to T&T, I suppose we'll have a slough of grand kids we can tag after.
Halloween is funny; you wander your neighborhood, banging on doors or partying in the front yard, joking, laughing and drinking with all the neighbors, knowing full well that come morning you'll all ignore each other again. Even if they did recognize you without the gorilla suit, it was dark out so you know your secret identity is safe.
Or maybe it's just me.
Maybe other people know and chat with all their neighbors.
That just sounds exhausting.
I came home to the news that once again, not a single trick or treater knocked on our door.
I wasn't surprised; we couldn't light the Dracula jack-o-lantern because we'd used up all the matches the night before. Plus, we never get any treaters; they skip our street and head straight for the party in the park.
Then I stayed up way too late watching a marathon of American Horror Story.
I had no nightmares and I didn't wake up to three feet of snow, like we did twenty years ago.
So far, so good!
