happy halloween

I think this year was the best Halloween. Ever. There was a time where due to the socially accepted norm that Halloween gives one carte blanche to dress as slutty as you want without any sort of value judgment being made, this holiday meant my carefully choosing a costume that was a bit sluttier than I would ever want to appear in my normal everyday life only limited by the fact that I lived in Minnesota where there is the tendency for all out loss of power type blizzards on Halloween, i.e., it's cold. For the most part, those times have passed - although, every once in awhile I have a fond memory of dressing like a sexy devil, super hero, etc., and have a fleeting desire to relive it.

This year, however, was the first year that we took Little Miss J out trick or treating. There was a brief moment at about 4:15 p.m., where I didn't think Gus and I would be able to escape from work in time to enjoy the festivities - but we made a commitment to ourselves and our little pumpkin that we would leave work at a designated time even if that meant working a few hours after Little Miss J went to sleep.

Our neighbors, Peter and Julie host an annual Halloween dinner for their friends and family, and we were lucky enough to score an invite. We met some new families and enjoyed a delicious dinner with wine, of course. Then all the kids, there were at least 10 of them, hit the streets. Julie makes sure to exchange your glass wine glass with a plastic one and Peter loads up the wagon with the adult goods.

Little Miss J was a model trick or treater. She said trick or treat at every house and always remembered to politely say thank you. After two houses, she really started getting into it and at one point was heard running down the sidewalk yelling, "Juliet LIKE!" If there was a house with its lights on and kids just leaving, she would say, "Juliet WANT," to indicate that this was the house she wanted to extort candy from next.

Little Miss J and our neighbor Karly

We made it down one side of our street, before we decided to call it a night and left the group. Little Miss J's candy bag was filled to the brim and she refused to let me empty it into a new bag, so we decided it was time to head home to count the booty.

This is what a happy trick or treater looks like
when she's told she can have one piece of candy.

This is what that same trick or treater looks like
when she realizes that one piece truly means only ONE.

Minus the last picture above, seeing Little Miss J really get into the trick or treating truly made this the best Halloween EVER. Hope everyone else had a fun and safe Halloween!