Feliz Dia de los Muertos

Today is Dia de Los Muertos, which means that yesterday was Halloween!! As many of you know, Halloween is our favorite holiday. A year without Halloween would probably be almost as bad as the one time we spent Thanksgiving by ourselves.

We've thrown some great Halloween parties over the years, many in collaboration with our Good Friends Mr. GH and Mrs. HG. This year with Halloween landing on a Saturday for the first time in 11 years, they naturally wanted to take little E trick 'er treating, in their own neighborhood, 26 miles away. And, frankly, we were not prepared to have an inaugural Halloween bash this year.

So we comforted ourselves with the knowledge that, for the first time since we left Los Angeles, we would be able to give out candy to trick 'er treaters. We were very excited, until some bad bad person made the Good Mr. Dr. sick. Then I was excited and he tried very hard to have the energy to be excited.

We carved pumpkins, I decorated the parlor windows and front door, planted myself outside and waited. It started at around 5 pm. It was almost 3 hours of head exploding cuteness. Princesses, Transformers, pirates, princesses (there must have been a sale), and ghoulies of all types. At least 6 houses were handing out candy on our block. It helped that the weather was warm (65 degrees F at 5 pm). We did not want to be those people who are cheap with the candies, so everyone got 3-4 pieces. Except for adults with infants; they got 2. Uncostumed teenagers got 1 of the cheapo candies, unless they could give a creative answer to the costume inquiry. One young man, who couldn't have been older than 15, dressed as if he had just come from basketball practice told me that he was dressed as "Sexy." To which the only response is, "Keep trying."

Because the Good Mr. Dr. is ill, I uploaded the pictures to my Picasa page. You can access by clicking here.

Everything's been cleaned up today. The pumpkins still grace our steps, at least until they are stolen or I have time to cut them up to put them in the compost bin, whichever comes first.

Other exciting news:

The Good Mr. Dr. is a grand-uncle for the first time on his side. The poor thing developed a respiratory infection and has spent the first days of her life in NICU. Please send your prayers and good thoughts her way. She's been making good progress and she should be able to come home shortly.

Not to be outdone in the medical services department, brand new Grandma took a fall and broke her leg. So, keep her in your thoughts and prayers too.

Well, I am off to do a bit of grocery shopping. Not as fun as shoe shopping, but not as bad as shopping for a plumber.


UPDATE: Our newest grand-niece is out of the hospital and home with her parents. We look forward to meeting her next month.