Hallowe'en Fun!

Any one who's known me for a decent amount of time is aware that Hallowe'en for me & my family is a pretty big deal. In fact for the years during university when I couldn't be home for it were rather depressing times. Unfortunately, since the majority of the time Hallowe'en falls during the week, I can't justify taking 2 days off work to make the drive back to the 'shwa either. For the past couple years we've strived to make the best of the season anyway though. My mom has hosted pre-hallowe'en family potlucks, and this year there was a big bash planned back home (see Matt's blog for the details ;-) it was a doozy!) so that we could all still celebrate it together. But this was my first year really doing Hallowe'en in Ottawa.

Let me tell you, it was WEIRD! First let me just say, yay for Matt for actually wanting to hand out candy at his house. I was so excited to have somewhere to do this, since I live in an apartment, and that's just not really conducive to trick or treating. I had every intention of decorating as best as possible at his place for the kiddies, but the weekend away, work and traffic intervened, and we really didn't get anything done. Oh well, at least my place was decorated!! Next year, I'll have to actually invite people over beforehand to see it.

Here's where the weird part comes in though....I've never EVER handed out candy at the door. Many of you might wonder about this, or even fail to see why it was so strange to me, but it was. Even I can't explain it. It just seems totally out of sorts for me to be answering a doorbell and dishing out treats. And that's not even accounting for the strange feeling of not being dressed up!

I suppose I should backtrack a little and explain the door thing. At my parents, Hallowe'en set-up commences days before, and my dad actually takes the day off work to decorate and prepare for the night ahead. He carves no less than 10 pumpkins on a given Hallowe'en, I believe it was 13 this year. He makes fresh graves on the front lawn, and sets up our personalized tombstones. (I should also mention my parents actually live next to a little cemetary now, which just adds to the effect!) THEN, he rolls out the coffin. Yes, you read that right. My father owns a coffin, exclusively used for Hallowe'en. And to make a long story, uh, shorter....it is only ever from this coffin that I've handed out candy. Can you imagine, as a little kid, walking up to this creepily decked out house and being told by a disembodied voice (Dad has a whole sound system rigged up for this too) that you must knock on the coffin to receive a treat?? I love it! It's great! One year my aunt actually even hauled a kid into the coffin with her.... :-D

Of course, to hand out the candy from the coffin, you must also be decked out in costume. Hence, the strangeness of not being dressed up at Matt's Tuesday. I did wear my Hallowe'en shirt and my cool spider pin....but it just wasn't the same.

Overall, I'm really glad I got to hand stuff out this year, and maybe next year we can scare up ideas to get more kids there, cuz that's what it's all about!! Hope you all had a great Hallowe'en, and just keep remembering: It's fun to pretend :-)