Halloween...and Now Here We Go...

I feel like this was a really low-key Halloween.  Yes, we did a pumpkin patch.  Yes, we had pumpkins.  Yes, we carved one.  But with only one kid dressing up, and it being a hand-me-down costume at that, it felt like we skipped a bunch of steps. 

Normally I feel like October is a scramble from start to finish, to make sure we do the pumpkin thing and each kid has a costume, and sometimes I even have one myself.  Even though I'm back in person part-time and we did have some holiday festivities last week, there wasn't a big emphasis on costumes or decorations like we usually do, so that added to the minimalistic feel this year.  I appreciated my office's efforts, though--cider and donuts, a mini pumpkin patch to pick a pumpkin, and a pizza food truck kept things feeling fun.  After three weeks of events, activities, and swag to welcome us back to the office (and probably make the return a little less painful for those who preferred remote), I think that's toning down now...right in time for the November blahs.    

I was a little disappointed that Jacob decided not to trick-or-treat this year.  Last year he was going to go but an ill-timed cold and an extra long wait for COVID test results put the kibbosh on that.  This year he just decided he didn't want to.  I stopped after 7th grade, but I feel like it's more common now for older kids, and he has the excuse of a little brother to go with, so why not salvage those last couple childhood years, you know?  You can only get loads of free candy for a short time in life, and I sort of regret I didn't do it longer, even if I understand why I stopped.  He's just too mature for his own good sometimes.  

Carter ended up picking Jacob's old zombie football player costume that he wore at the same age.  For a while he wanted to be Marshmello, the DJ with the weird marshmallow-shaped head, but I think some kids at school laughed at that, sadly.  At some point I mentioned what Jacob wore in third grade, and Carter seemed intrigued.  When I pulled it out, I was surprised how much he liked it, but I was thrilled to skip the trip to the store and the $35+ cost that we usually incur there.  Even if we would have had to do the store, at least he would have had two opportunities to wear it this year since he's now in a school that celebrates (his K-2 school did not, but the 3-5 school with the same group of kids does...go figure).  At least with school celebrations, it always feels a little better than spending money on something that gets worn for about an hour on Halloween night.  Ahh, the things we do for our kids!  But after settling on that costume, it wasn't until early last week that it hit me that I really needed to pull it out and test out a couple things for what he might wear with it--namely leggings to stay warm and a hat to help disguise the weird half-helmet it came with.  Then after a few days last week of dressing up for other theme days (and having a short week with Friday off for Parent-Teacher conferences), suddenly it was Wednesday, Halloween celebrations were the next day, and it felt like everything came a little out of nowhere!  It probably didn't help that I didn't have to send anything in for his party this time around--usually that's my advance notice.  But we figured it all out and he had fun at school.

As I mentioned, Friday was a day off for Carter, and in retrospect I wish I would have taken the day off.  The weather wasn't supposed to be good, but it was actually decent for most of the day so we could have gone out and done something.  Instead he rotated between toys and the TV and a little school work while I worked from home.  The weather later Friday into Saturday was a complete wreck--just pouring rain, the second day that week with more than an inch of rain.  Our yard was a swamp by Sunday, to the point I couldn't clear out my pumpkin patch when the rain finally stopped because it was under an inch or more of water.  Everywhere we went Saturday we saw new "ponds" that had formed, and a nearby creek that's usually a solid six inches or more under a bridge you can see from the road was completely OVER the bridge.  It was rough.  Our sump hole usually has almost no water in it, and it was high enough for me to force the sump pump to run to make sure it still worked!  

Craig was gone this weekend for the first time since his August California trip, and this was the first of many coming weekends where he'll be gone for work.  It's going to take some getting used to, for sure.  I can't say it went entirely smoothly, but we managed.  We had to be up at the crack of dawn for basketball practice Saturday, only for it to get canceled as we were driving there.  Jacob did end up attending a clinic later that day, and Carter and I spent that time picking up a gift for a birthday party next weekend and checking out the fall clearance (and getting a Christmas preview) at Hobby Lobby.  Jacob took a little extra time to come out once we arrived for pick-up, and we got bored enough to take a selfie... 

Later that day we drove down to Avon to get another round of donuts and pizza since it was the last week of donuts for the year.  Other than that, it was a pretty boring weekend.  I kept busy, of course, but the excitement level was decidedly low.  After cleaning out our pumpkin on Friday night, it took almost the whole rest of the weekend to decide on a face, but we finally did on Sunday.  Carter had wanted to take a family vote, but in the end we decided on a vampire mouth and used our window cling pumpkins to devise the other parts.

I only carved one this year out of protest--I am tired of doing two (or more) each year and having it be entirely my job.  Carter did help separate seeds this year and gave input on the face, but one was still plenty!

Craig made it home later in the afternoon, and before we knew it, it was dinner time and time to get ready to trick-or-treat!  We got Carter in his costume (plus an extra layer or two), and I added some dark eyeshadow to give him dark zombie circles under his eyes.  He insisted on directing his own photo shoot...

And then Mom insisted on one normal one with a smile...

I was thankful to get a free pumpkin at work the other day so we'd still have an orange one once our jack o'lantern rots.  It's the warty one on the right.  I am still completely obsessed with the other one on the ground.  The colors and pattern are so cool!

I didn't mind being the trick-or-treating buddy for the night because I wanted to make sure we got to some decorated houses around the corner before venturing down the one busy road in our neighborhood.  This house was cool, but believe it or not, they were not giving out candy!

Same with this one--no candy.  But their decorations were top notch.  This picture is blurry (so many of mine were--it was weird), but you can see there's a bunch happening on the lawn.  There's also a giant spider, web, and other characters over on the right side beyond the frame.  They went all out and we loved driving by it the past few weeks.  

The coolest, creepiest part was the living room window.  I'm sure it was just a projection of some sort, but it was neat!

Here's another blurry picture of another house, but I wanted to include it because this one has a cool backstory.  This house is the next street over and I remember it from years past.  It has giant dummies of the major horror movie characters, plus a bunch of other fun stuff.  I saw in the news last week that the guy who did it died of cancer over the summer, and his wife made a promise to continue it.  It was awesome and heartbreaking at the same time.  I couldn't help but go up to the porch with Carter and express my condolences for her loss and my thanks for her willingness to do it without him.  She said that it had definitely been a hard day, and it was the first time in 20 years she was sitting there on the porch alone, but all the positive comments she'd been getting were helping.  So sad but sweet.

We also hit a house that took a break last year but had their full display back up and running.  You can see our wacky experience three years ago at that house in this post, which was part of my favorite trick-or-treating year ever.  This house has a full garage display.  Video is below. 

There was a creepy witch handing out the candy, too.  Knowing what we had experienced last time, I was prepared for shenanigans, and sure enough, the second I finished panning for the video above, out of the corner of my eye I could see someone standing directly over my shoulder.  It was some sort of creeper in a mask (though not as creepy as last time, admittedly).  I realized immediately what was happening and managed a very friendly, "Hi!" to lighten the moment.  The creeper was a woman and did talk a little bit as we laughed about it.  It's an interesting feature to add to an over-the-top display, but at least this year it cracked me up.

After that we worked our way back toward home.  Carter's pumpkin was nearly full and so was his bladder, so we hit up any lit houses on our street before heading home.  He did get the rest of his pumpkin crammed full of suckers from the mom across the street!

He was a happy kid!  I was grateful that the weather cooperated (I didn't even need gloves!) and we got a solid round of trick-or-treating in--both for the candy and the fun displays.  Seeing Jacob wrap things up, I know our years are limited and it's sort of mind-blowing that we're likely a few years away from this phase of parenthood being over.  Yeah, it's definitely been a bunch of years since those first clumsy years of trick-or-treating to a few select neighbors, but it's also one of those things you forget will end at some point--probably at a point where you'll feel like you need it most to maintain any shred of childhood.  But for now, it was still fun.  And I probably won't give up trying to convince Jacob to come out of retirement for the next year or two, although at this rate he'll be taller than half of the adults by then!

And now...November.  I actually feel a little bit better about November than I usually do, which could be because there's still leaves on the trees (even if their color isn't great, it's still color) and I have something fun planned for mid-month, which always helps.  But I will say that a trip to Wegmans last night nearly made me nauseous as the Christmas stuff was really starting to come out in force.  Candy, wrapping paper, ornaments, decor...I'm not ready for that part yet.  But I know it's coming quickly.  With all the product shortages we'll probably need to make some quicker gift decisions this year, but I'm still concerned about getting everything and avoiding another COVID Christmas (even if the last one wasn't that bad).  It's a lot to think about at this point in the pandemic where the bare minimum feels like enough as we're trapped between increasing normalcy and the reality that it's not over yet.  Such a strange time.  But the holidays are coming and I now have three weeks to prepare myself...