Well lookee there, it’s November, bitches. The baseball season ends tonight. SiriusXM will begin playing Christmas music at some point today. The slow trickle of holiday commercials will turn into a flood over the next few nights.
All kicked off last night by Halloween, of course. It was a very different Halloween night for us compared to anytime in the past 13 years. The girls all went in different directions, and all without either S or I. M went with a neighborhood friend one way. C went with another neighborhood friend another way. And L took off with her aunts and uncles and trio of one-year-old cousins to make a different loop. Meanwhile I hung out with our neighbors in the driveway next to a fire while eating and drinking. S, who had a crazy day at work, stayed inside and worked on her charting most of the evening. So no more wandering around the ‘hood with the girls while they filled their buckets and bags with goodies.
Oh, costumes. M had hemmed and hawed for a couple weeks and ended up wearing a llama onesie we found at Target.[1] M LOVES llamas so was pretty excited. It was also a much warmer choice than her other options, which was important. The friend she went around with had a matching giraffe costume, which was perfect and random: they weren’t planning on going together but somehow ended up cruising the streets next to each other all night. M also claimed this was her last year of trick or treating since her friend next door will be in high school next year, and high schoolers don’t trick or treat. Never mind that they ended up not going together last night, and the girl M hung out with is a freshman. So maybe we’ll get her out one more year.
C went as a Starbucks barista. She also had about five different ideas over the past few months, several of which would have required crafting skills both S and I lack. The two friends she hung out with both went as crazy cat ladies, wearing robes with stuffed cats sewn onto them and curlers in their hair. I’m not sure why C didn’t want to join in with them, but she got lots of compliments on her Starbucks hat and apron, which I found on eBay and were of really high quality.[2]
L also had multiple ideas and ended up going as a sumo wrestler. Her costume had a little fan that screwed into the side to keep it inflated. It was pretty hilarious but also a little tough to get around in.
What was also weird about the night was how quiet our neighborhood was. I’m not sure if we’ve had a lot of turnover in the subdivision and now have a mix of older and younger kids, but the streets seemed deserted all night. We hardly had any kids come down our cul-de-sac and the girls said the main streets weren’t busy either. It was chilly but dry, so it’s not like the years it has rained or snowed and kept people inside. Weird. We had a ton of candy left over.
So it was a very different Halloween than all the others we’ve been through since we became parents. While it was nice to just hang out in one spot next to a warm fire, afterward I felt like I missed out on the night a little bit. Especially given how light the overall trick or treating was.
And today is the first All Saints Day we haven’t had a kid dressed up as a saint in forever as well. Man, this kids getting older thing is throwing me for a big loop.