Halloween

I have a confession...I actually don't like Halloween. I would love to say that it is because of some deep religious or moral convictions, but the (somewhat embarrassing) truth is that I don't like to be scared. When I was little I HATED trick-or-treating because the houses were decorated scary, and there was one where every year the guy hid (as part of their decorations) and jumped out at the kids who came. By 8 or 9 I was begging my parents to let me stay home. By 10 I prevailed and the terror of trick-or-treating was a thing of the past. Even now I avoid scary costumes and decorations (even in the store), and most hate the dozens of scary movie trailers on tv. Even the commercials give me nightmares.

My other confession...I'm a sucker for an opportunity to dress up. I love costumes. I even love theme parties, candy, games, carving pumpkins. I love the way a neighborhood comes together, welcoming all to their house, giving generously to those who arrive on their doorstep. I get giddy like a kid over all of the non-scary aspects of Halloween.

This is part of the reason I caved and bought some last minute carving pumpkins (they were also $1 each, and who can pass up that price)! Lucas and I held our own carving competition (which I didn't know was a competition until after mine was carved...), and the twins got to watch, play in the goop, and see their very first jack-o-lanterns (they weren't so sure about the glowing faces...).

See if you can tell who carved which pumpkin...

And then it was time for the grand finale of this particular holiday season - trick-or-treating! Our fire station was hosting a "Trunk-or-Treat" where people decorate their cars and hand candy out from the trunks. We were really excited about attending our first real community event (we were sick for the Easter Egg Hunt...). We had some time before we left and tried to get some pictures of them in costume with the pumpkins. But you know how group pictures go around here...

Turns out we should have left early. When we got to Trunk-or-Treat we found this line (the building you see on the left side in the center is where the event was hosted to give you an idea of the length of the line).

We ended up waiting roughly 1/2 hour to even get to the trunks. We had imagined milling around, meeting people in the community, talking with people at their trunks, but because of the long line we were quickly ushered around the circle of trunks while they dropped candy in our bags with barely enough time for us to say "Thank you." We might have been able to be more social in the fire station where they had donuts and cider, but there was another line... Instead, we decided to hit a few houses for trick-or-treating. Including our neighbors across the street (seen in this picture...along with a few kids from church we adopted for the evening)

The best part of the evening? Handing out candy. I think we had at least 5 times the amount of trick-or-treaters last night than we had in all of our 5 years in MA! And we apparently missed the rush! We had helpers to pass out the candy, and they did a fabulous job!

Our trick-or-treating was obviously a night early, so to all of you who are trick-or-treating on actual Halloween, have a safe, fun, and not too scary night!