Halloween 2015

We have loved owning our own home this year. It's been nice to live in a neighborhood rather than an apartment! We've been looking forward to celebrating the holidays in our own home before we even started looking for a house in earnest- we bought about 20 strings of Christmas lights on clearance last year just in case we had our own place by this December.

Our town is pretty big on Halloween, I think it has something to do with the proximity to Salem (yes the Witch Trials Salem). Our town has a Halloween parade every year and people put up lights and all sorts of decorations on their houses. I really like Halloween but we have never had trick-or-treaters come to our door since we've been married- not many people come to apartments with a door code on the building. Thomas never had trick-or-treaters come to his door growing up either, he lived down a spooky looking lane and nobody ever dared venture down there for a treat.

This year Thomas cooked up an idea to do something a little more than just hand out candy. We decided to go all out to be the cool house on the block. We borrowed a fire pit from some friends, brought out all the lawn chairs and set up a hot chocolate and cider station.

We invited some friends to come trick-or-treat in our neighborhood and use our house as a home base to keep warm. Everyone that came down the road was welcome to enjoy the fire in the driveway and we whipped up fresh hot chocolate all night. We finally met some of our neighbors which was nice especially since we've lived here since March and know pretty much none of them.

I think we might make this a yearly tradition, it turned out to be a huge hit and was so simple to put together. Plus, I love any excuse to have a good bonfire.

Halloween Parade 2014

New Englanders really love Halloween, I think it has something to do with the proximity to Salem. All that witch trial hysteria must still linger in the air but thankfully it's a little less let's-put-someone-on-trial and more let's-have-a-Halloween-parade.

Our friends live right at the beginning of the parade route so they invite a bunch of people to gather there for food and prime candy-grabbing real estate. The parade was over two hours long this year and the kids made quite the haul of candy.

I love parades. I mean I really love parades. I was in one every year at my grandparent's house on the 4th of July growing up. And seriously, who doesn't love seeing a string or assorted amusements walking by and throwing sweets at you. Can it get any better than that?

I always look forward to a few things at parades. First, is the Clydesdales. They are so beautiful and again remind me of childhood.

Next is the cars, people always shine up their classics, their souped up Harley's and even their tanks.

Then there are the bands. This parade had so many bagpipe groups! I guess parades are the only place they can play without annoying all of their neighbors to death. Marching bands from high schools near and far came to play and there was even a tiny fife and drum 4-H group.

The last thing I look forward to is the nerdy stuff. You don't get this in all parades- the 4th of July, for example- but there is sure a lot of it in a Halloween parade. Star Wars, Batmobile and the like.

All of our friends' kids had such a great time. When it was all said and done- and we were almost frozen to death- we went inside to sort the candy. Is there anything better than picking through a pile of candy that you just stood on the street and had thrown at you?

Trunk & Trick-or-Treat

This year for Halloween the Dr. and I went as Sheldon & Amy from the TV show The Big Bang Theory. Not a lot of people knew who we were at the ward trunk-or-treat party but I loved dressing up anyway.

On Halloween night we headed downtown to the Beacon Hill neighborhood with some friends of ours. We left work early and took the train in. This is one of the most picturesque parts of the city to begin with and when the residents decorate to the nines for Halloween it becomes magical.

Let's take a closer look at the witch on this stoop. I don't know why but seeing a witch with her Apple laptop made me chuckle.

Our cute friends were dressed up as Tinkerbell and Peter Pan.

The streets were full of children and adults alike in full costume. We saw some pretty creative and clever costumes over the course of the night. There were spiderwebs, delicately carved pumpkins, ghosts, graveyards and ghouls everywhere you looked.

This man had carved the most amazing pumpkin lanterns to hang in the trees. I think this is a New England thing- hanging pumpkins from trees.

Thomas was in charge of stroller pushing duties and he excelled at it. Those cobblestone streets mean business!

John Kerry's house- whaaat?

As the evening went on the streets got more and more busy and before we knew it you could hardly move. The doorsteps got a little too busy for our friends so we headed back to the train and out of town.

One of the last houses we saw was this one- such a treat! They had a movie screen with some werewolf movie projecting, a big full moon, smoke machines, music and lights. It was truly unbelieveable.