Sunday, November 4, 2012

All Hallows Eve

 Halloween is one of my favorite holidays!  I love it because it is a low-commitment, non-expectation holiday, where it is perfectly acceptable to dress up in anything, and be someone else for the night! Not to mention how exciting it is to go trick-or-treating among the ghosts and ghouls that roam about in the dark.  This year our Halloween was perfect!   Last year Halloween was truly a nightmare of sorts. Between scraped knees and lost shoes and a fussy baby who wasn't keen on all the excitement. This year, with my little deer, Snow White and a teddy bear who refused to keep his bear-eared hood on, we enjoyed a great Halloween party and quite a bit of trick-or-treats.  The kids were intoxicated by the magic and excitement of it all. Little Isabel would get seconds from all the houses by holding out her bag after she was dished out a hand-full of candy, then the candy-giver would ask, "oh, do you want more?" And give her another handful. Needless to say, her bucket was twice as full as the others! :)
 Its neat how as the kids grow older, they have expectations of what we are going to do each season and holiday.  We took the kids to Hill High Farm last weekend to get our pumpkins! We arrived a little late and they closed the hay ride (oh how could they?), but we visited some sweet animals and picked out perfect little table-top pumpkins! 
 Kieran was at least content with dressing up and trick-or-treating, but mostly he loved the party.  There was a big plastic LittleTykes car that was just his size that he guarded pretty heavily all night long. Now he is so excited to pick out candy from his "Puck-in". :)
 I have a goal now of keeping Halloween costumes simple, preferably using something we have on hand. I was delighted that Anastasia wanted to be Snow White because we got a lovely Snow White dress at the Flea Market this summer. Her only request was for a matching dress for Bitty Baby and a big red bow. Easy Peasy. It seems she is on a rotation each year she is either a princess or a fairy. This year was a princess year.  Isabel went through wanting to be a deer, to a bunny, to a deer, bunny, Rose Red, a fairy, a bunny.  Finally on Sunday I told her to choose then and there what to be so we could get her costume ready or else she would have to choose from the dress up box. I just made ears and sewed them to a headband and painted a face... for a strikingly lovely deer.  And Kieran wore his old bear suit from last winter after I lost the desire to make him a monster costume (as if he needs a costume. He is always a monster).

 We survived the nasty little hurricane with no power outages.  Maybe because we over-prepared this time.  The wind was insane and the rain was unending, and my heart goes out to those up North who lost everything. 
Because of the massive storms, we kept our jack-o-lanterns indoors on our table this year.  We really enjoyed them so. I hope you all had an equally lovely Halloween!  And now it is November... and I am feeling the gravitational pull of Christmas on our lives already.  7 weeks is not that far away!