To the Merlet girls, Halloween just would not be Halloween if we were not in NY. The year we had moved to London, on Halloween morning Hana got all decked out in her princess dress, which she insisted to wearing out to lunch - but then within 10 minutes of being out, she looked at me all puzzled and asked, "why are there nobody else doing Halloween?"
The French apparently got into Halloween a few years ago, but have now all but abandoned the notion and labeled it "too commercial" and "too American". This is a shame - I personally love Halloween and it must be so much fun for kids - to get to run around in some fancy dress, knock on stranger's doors and get lots and lots of candy in return - well, I am all for it. I met an American mom here last year who was like, my kids don't know what it is and as long as they don't ask for it, I'm not telling them about it because who needs more sugar. I was like, well, I don't think we will be good friends - just such irreconciliable differences in perspectives and cultural reference points, you know?
Anyway, so this year again we schlepped the kids back to the US - thankfully no airport strikes greeted us this year and our trip to NY was uneventful. Because Halloween fell on a Friday this year, most towns organized activities the weekend before - so the morning after we landed we headed over to Short Hills, where my jetlagged kids got to participate in a Taekwondo Halloween party (what will these commerce-savvy TKD masters think of next!). Then we trick-or-treated through some of the stores and then headed over to the town's YMCA where the girls insisted on going through a haunted house (it was really well done! Manolee was genuinely scared and I think Hana was too at some points).
Of course the day of Halloween, we were at it again - my good friend C held a really cool Halloween party at her house, complete with Halloween-themed decorations and snacks - see pics:
Then all the trick-or-treating - - the weather was good, not too cold, and the kids had a blast. Most houses were very well decorated, with skeletons half buried in the ground, huge spiders climbing trees, coffins scattered about the front yard... The kids ran to each and every door - some people who were not home left buckets of candy outside, one house even left a basket full of quarters outside - but most people who were home came out with huge buckets full of candy and greeted the kids, commented on the costumes, and in general were so nice - how can you not love Halloween!
Meanwhile, PeeWee fell in love with the skeleton at C's house and was putting it in all kinds of places, at the dinner table, in the passenger seat of the car, etc etc, and in general was getting such a kick out of it - see below an example:
See how Manolee is looking at the skeleton above? Well, wouldn't you know - that night, an hour or so after the kids passed out, we heard a kid screaming - I did not recognize the voice and thought it was one of my friends' kids - well, it turnd out it was Manolee screaming at the top of her lungs - she was pointing at Hana (sleeping through all the commotion) and saying that there was a skeleton next to her big sister! It was her first nightmare ever - the poor thing....
Despite the nightmare, a great Halloween for the kids overall. Halloween is the best!
