A haunting we will go...

It's the time of year when traditions both old and new come to the fore.

Thursday night I served my yearly Bingo obligation. It is definitely much easier since the bingo hall went to non-smoking, and with my pedometer I was able to clock up two more miles toward Rivendell while doing so. I felt a bit like a test proctor, walking up and down the hall waiting for some lucky person to holler 'Bingo' and a portion of the remainder to mutter mild curses under their breath. All I needed was a ruler! Though given that it's for a Catholic school, maybe I needed a ruler *and* a habit!

Friday night I took DD to a Halloween party that the 8th grade class at DD's school hosts every year as a fundraiser. Lots of booth games, and costumes. Costumes with wings seem to be the rage now - fairies, angels, princesses with wings...Probably a good 40% of the costumes were winged. There were a few unusual ones - my favorite was the girl who dressed up as.... a S'more. Large pieces of cardboard slung sandwichboard-style, and a pillow on the underside of one, and a frame of some sort on the other. Very clever! DD had a great time and raked in a lot of trinkets!

Saturday DD and I made Black Cat Cookies, courtesy of Shannon (though mine don't look near as pretty!). And Sunday we carved pumpkins and roasted the seeds. We got a number of compliments today on the pumpkins, especially the pirate one!


I also made a dessert for a potluck at work. When shopping for Halloween candy, I found bone-shaped gummy snacks, and decided to have some fun by combining them with black cherry jello and other dried fruit. It looks pretty gruesome, but by all accounts of those who dared try it, it was very tasty!

And tonight was trick-or-treating. By the time DD and I got home, there were already several groups of kids out and about so we missed the early ones, but we still had 60 kids come by. There were a lot of fairies, princesses, and superhero types (including a little Incredible), and later in the evening a number of teen girls whose ideas of costuming involved as little actual fabric as they could get away with.

Of the costumes I saw, my favorites were several different preschool pirates (I counted 4 over the evening), a mime with a handwritten "trick or treat" sign, and an 8-year-old girl dressed up as....a washing machine. Her candy bucket was a cut-up detergent dispenser. That certainly was the most clever one I saw over the evening. DD and I went out in matching princess attire. DD scored rather a lot of candy, and according to my pedometer I racked up 5 more miles! I was thinking it would have been 2-3, but I guess accounting for walking up to doors and crossing the street pushes it to 5. Can't beat making my walking goal all of an evening!

All in all, it's been a good Halloween. But then Halloween has tended to be one of my favorite times of year, maybe because it's an excuse to get costumed up!