Halloween

India the Vampire- I sewed her cape.
THE Brock from all the stories stops by-he is dressed as a monkey( mask in hand). They swear they are just friends now.
Niall is the 'Phantom of the Opera', Leith the dragon, Ashley and India are vampires. Coral worked in her friend Ryan's haunted house for the evening-I am still waiting for photos, although, I'm not sure they will be family friendly.

Halloween seems to have moved away from the simple fun of yesteryear. I still try to sew and assemble at least some of our costumes at home. We carve pumpkins, have a great dinner of 'mummy dogs' and 'gold fish salad'(call if you want recipes) and invite friends to eat and trick-or-treat with us.
Our fun is hard work, however.
I seem to spend the six weeks beforehand trying to 1.avoid the gory displays in retail establishments(one store we usually like had a dismembered torso directly inside the doors-we had to leave), 2.encourage the teens to avoid the really over-the-top haunted houses(no ghosts or ghouls, instead depictions of horrific violence and gore) and 3.keep the candy to a reasonable amount(there is no anticipation, people are shoving candy at the kids for weeks before they actually trick-or-treat.)
I am also driven crazy by the religious conflict surrounding the event. I heard on the radio a ridiculous piece by a holy-roller about the pagan, evil beginnings of Halloween. Maybe he should look into the origins of Christmas. Different Wards in my own religion seem conflicted, too. In our Ward, we have a 'Trunk or Treat' right before Halloween. What a pain to have to get the costumes all ready early and have twice the candy to deal with! AND, there is no possible reason for it!! We live in the PERFECT neighborhood for going door-to-door- nice houses, no through streets, neighbors who know each other, etc. It is so ideal, in fact, that it clearly attracts people from other neighborhoods-and welcome.
Well, sorry for the rant. On the other hand....
The kids were really happy with their costumes, had a great time with friends and got more candy than I am really going to let them consume. It was a mild night-45 degrees- Leith was comfy in his dragon suit, and Niall worked up a serious sweat running house to house. I sat outside on the porch passing out candy during 'the rush' and listening to Jack Marinello play his bagpipes up the hill from us. The hillside allows the sound to float all around. The music mixed with the voices of the children and teens as they walked up and down the streets was really festive and I was able to chat with friends and neighbors and admire costumes.
After slogging through the lame commercialization and gore for weeks, the fun really appeared between 6 and 9 pm on Halloween night-as if by magic.