Halloween 2008

It was a wonderful Halloween this year. Isabella's school celebrates "Country Day" on Halloween. For whatever reason, I read that to mean... dress up in your USA gear. When I pulled up at the school to drop her off (this is an unusual event, for she typically rides the bus)... I son saw a sea of cowboy hats. I'm sure Isabella was rather upset... for the first hour until her daddy brought her boots and cowgirl hat to school. When I picked her up she was proudly donning her cowgirl gear... and was carrying a jack-o-lantern. Praise to her teacher, Mrs. Mosco. Rick and I had decided that carving a jack-o-lantern wasn't in the cards this year. Funny how things work out for the good.

This is the first year that Rick, Bella and I celebrated Halloween in our new home. Our home was festive with decorations: one real jack-o-lantern, six plastic jack-o-lanterns (including two that I picked up at the local Winn Dixie that cover the lanterns that flank my garage), purple "Christmas" lights, a mum, a cinderella pumpkin (looks like it is covered with warts) and gourds, a mum, and a small scarecrow. We probably had two other neighbors on our street who had halloween decorations. I guess that have learned not to go all out... for we did not have any trick-or-treaters visit our house! There are over fifteen kids on our street!

Isabella dressed as... can you guess... a cowgirl. She donned some jeans, her horse-shoe button up shirt, a straw hat (in lieu of her two true cowgirl hats), her boots, her hair braided with ribbons, and one horse-on-a-stick.

Isabella and I met up with her little friend Fiona (she's six and was dressed as a spunky witch), Fiona's mom and dad, Fiona's big brothers Orion (dressed as a mugger with one of those neon orange knit thingy-ma-bobbers like a hunter would wear to keep his face warm... eye and mouth holes only... and he even had a toy gun) and Logan (the oldest, a 12-year old, who was at the pivotal year of being embarassed to be trick-or-treating with his family AND upset because his parents couldn't fork out a pile of dough for a fantabulous costume... and instead had to wear a cloak and a "Scream" mask). We did trick-or-treat on our street; about seven other homes has their lights on. We then traveled across the road to newer neighborhood, Winterdale. This neigborhood was shaped like one long oval with two entrances/exits at the short ends of the oval. It was an UNREAL experience. We were in Suburbia. Never in my life have I been out on Halloween and been in a spot where I could turn and see a hundred or more children and parents, Halloween creeks and screams from CD's, and 'fake' smoke wafting into the streets. Almost EVERY home in this fifty-something house neighborhood was participating, some of them going to the extreme with their decorations. It was as if there were all competing for the best decoration trophy. Most of the home-owners were dressed in costumes of some sort, sitting on their porches or in their garages doling out handfuls of treats. It was a surreal and memorable experience (and of course I left my camera at home).

I sit here, sharing this experience with you, as I dig through our stash of sugar.