After months of feeling pretty isolated, our second ‘holiday’ hit along with higher COVID-19 numbers. To say that everyone is tired of this pandemic mess is an understatement. For middle ground people like us, we weren’t sure what to do. So much talk of Halloween being canceled, some folks being flippant, others being very cautious; it’s difficult to know where the line is to walk for sanity and safety.
Luckily, the one family that we know here invited us over and we, very thankfully, accepted. Since we arrived we have slowly been getting to know Gil’s high school friend and his family, it’s been a respite that I desperately needed. They are a very welcoming and authentic family that comes with a young boy, a year younger than Cecito. The kids are figuring out how to be friends and even though they live a bit of a distance from us, we are managing get-togethers about once a month. They are the only people we occasionally hang out with, in our new city.
Security is not something that comes with a pandemic and even less when you leave a place and people you love dearly. Social media is truly a reminder of all the things you’re missing, but also one of the ways people rely on for communication; total double-edged sword kinda thing.
Even though, we were able to have a good time for Halloween. I’m sure others were feeling the strain, because of COVID-19. I know we are not the only ones I just wanted to share honestly with all of you.
Ok, onto Halloween … somehow we have the good fortune of our kids being a-ok with choosing costumes from their dress-up box—yes! One wanted to be Elsa and the other a butterfly. I agreed to get spray hair dye and it was a done deal. Little did I remember the mess that stuff makes! The blue hair and blue-winged butterfly made our apartment look like a smurf visited. I like to think that the clean up was worth the thrill of the first spray on his head.
I dressed as Rosie the Riveter since most of our things are sitting in storage boxes in San Diego. The last-minute dive into my closet was a success in my book. I was pleased to be dressing up with kids; it’s something I find great joy in and have lots of fun with.
For the event we drove to our destination, shared a meal with our friends, then headed out to get the loot! My kids were beyond themselves with excitement. Adorned with masks and pumpkin candy baskets my kiddos took flight, on foot. So much elation they could barely say words, mostly all that we could make out was shrill laughs of excitement.
There were tables at the end of driveways with candy bags, bowls at the end of walkways with reminder signs to share the wealth with all, long shoots to catch candy at the end, long rods with pinchers at the end to drop candy in a candy bin and so much more! We all had such a great time, I absolutely adored seeing the kids run around having fun.
The neighborhood we were in was new to us since Gil’s friends moved in last week. It’s even farther out in the suburbs than they were before, but we were in luck because that meant beer coolers and jello shots for parents. I was surprised and felt welcome, as did the other parent with me. She commented on how she thinks she’s going to really like this new neighborhood.
By the time full darkness hit the streets my kids were ready to go back to the house. They are afraid of the dark and without the mobs of people we were used to in North Park and their regular 15 kid trick-or-treating posse they called it a night when they realized it was full nighttime. This was good because I had overflowing pockets of candy from pumpkin baskets filled to the max.
We enjoyed the evening, but we were missing Dada; he had to work. His surprise was a hot to-go meal from his friend, who made it right before we hit the road to go home. Seriously, a super cool dude.
Disappointedly Gil missed the whole endeavor, but he was there for the 1:30 am puking session that Cecito came running into our room to announce. Guess Momma didn’t pay enough attention to how much candy he ate while we were going through his haul.
Don’t worry too much though, my little man was up bouncing around this morning, asking for candy after breakfast. Lessons are so hard to learn the first time around.
Glad the holiday was fun. At least it did not rain and covid fears were put aside for a few hours.