Samhain

Happy (Celtic) New Year!

We had a really busy Halloween this year, with easily 1,000 kids trick-or-treating us between 6pm and 9pm. We actually ran out of candy around 7:30 and had to send my niece out for more! The best costume this evening were an adorable UPS man – a little guy in the brown UPS coveralls and ball cap with an Amazon.com shipping box (with shipping label!) for a candy container. There were many lady bugs, fairies, superheros, Marios and Luigis (but only one Princess Peach), and the Scream mask was definitely the go-to costume for those who couldn’t pull together anything else this year. There were also lots of older teenagers and young adults roaming the streets and trick-or-treating – many more than in the past two years. I guess the fact that Halloween was on a school/work night this year didn’t slow anyone down.

I’ve posted a picture of Liam as the 10th Doctor. This picture was taken at the end of the evening, so the outfit isn’t as cool as it was earlier when the tie was more straight and the shirt was tucked in, but you can see the resemblance, especially with the TARDIS bag and sonic screwdriver in hand. Liam said that a few people recognized his outfit right away and only one asked who he was and seemed confused by his answer. Success, I’d say.

It was three years ago today that we closed escrow on our house and spent our first night camping out with sleeping bags and air mattresses in the back room. Since Halloween/Samhain marks the end of one year and the beginning of another in the Celtic calendar, it seemed appropriate to take possession of our house on that date, and we were happy when it worked out that way. It was definitely the end of one era and the beginning of another, so every Halloween, when we invite friends and family to help us celebrate my favorite holiday, the house seems happy.

Speaking of the end of an era, today is the last day of October, which means that my One Post Per Day challenge for the month is complete. I’ve really enjoyed blogging every day, much more than I thought I would, and I very much appreciate all my readers and commenters. I’d like to continue blogging, but will probably cut my frequency down to 2-3 times per week so I can start posting on the Stir the Embers blog on a regular basis again. Feel free to check us out over there at http://www.StirTheEmbers.org