Halloween USA

Last week was the holiday Halloween here in the US. Of course the decorating and festivities started a lot earlier, as Søren mentioned.  Halloween and Fall are synomous here, meaning they go hand in hand;  orange colors, pumpkins and ghourds.  And then there are the spider webs and skeletons, but I would say mostly just lots of Fall colors.  We noticed a lot of people have big blow up Halloween decorations now a days.  See this one of Bluey and family dressed up!  

The boys and I were excited about getting to do Halloween festivities for weeks before Halloween.  We had secured costumes at least a week ahead of time. ;-) Liam as a monkey, Benjamin as his favorite Barcelona player Jamine Yamal, and Silas (after a bit debate about not being allowed to dress up as scary or murderous things) dressed up as a magician.  

The day of Halloween we went to the Trunk or Treat event at our church.  The concept is that people decorate their trunks with a theme and park in a parking lot so people can come visit and get candy. The themes here were very light - popular cartoon characters, movie themes, etc.  My favorite was the Christian themed trunk that was a cat theme and said "God's love is Purr-fect".  It was a nice event to reach out to the community and spread happiness.

Afterwards the boys and I headed to Grandpa and Lizzie's house to say trick or treat! It was fun to get to see them, as we've never been able to do that before, and Silas got to show a magic trick.  

During dinner we were all prepared to hand out candy to trick or treaters, but as it was raining slightly we only had 2 guests before we ourselves went out in the neighborhood.   The boys were excited to go real trick or treating this year, as their previous experiences with trick or treating have included me going from room to room of our own house, changing hats and outfits, so they could say "trick or treat" at each door and get some candy!  They've loved it, but were excited about the REAL DEAL!

We all wanted to go together so we just left a bowl full of candy on the front step. 

Just a little candy ;-)

 Walking around in the neighborhood was such a joy.  All three boys had a great time and were very brave walking up to doors and saying "trick or treat".  Of course a lot of the people handing out candy wanted to talk to them, and ask them questions, so they really got a cultural experience out of it.  We also learnd that people don't just give out one piece of candy, they give out at least 2 or 3, and sometimes even a whole handfull! Some families had built a campfire in their front yards and were sitting around hanging out and passing out candy. It was very cosy.  We enjoyed seeing some houses that had really decorated a lot.  

A few places had moving statues that would sing a spooky song or start moving and blink their eyes, and that was fun too.  There wasn't a single place that had any really scary or gory items. It was just a festive night with lots of activity in the streets and friendly people.  All in all a great family experience. 

We walked around for almost 2 hours and when we got home around 8:30pm the boys quickly poured out their candy and started sorting it.  It was fun to see types of candy I had forgotten about, for example "Butterfingers"....there were lots of Snickers and Reeses Peanut Butter Cups.  The boys got to eat a few pieces for bed, but I think we have plenty of candy for the next long time!