It was a week ago, but I just wanted to put in a note about Halloween because a lot of Americans want to know what they might be trading in or giving up when they do a year abroad.  I would not say Halloween was a total bust but, for the Raydon family, this is our #1 favorite "holiday" & our standards are really too high!  So therefore, I would honestly say, it was not our best Halloween ever!  Very small sacrifice for all we are gaining this year but I'll fill you in on how it went down...

My obsession with clever costumes & funny parties may have started in college because I went to UCSB where they *used* to be ranked one of the top 10 places to celebrate Halloween.  From the 6-man car wash (where the said 6 were dressed in those shamie strips & then they would all get around someone & say "clean this car!" and spin around, whipping the person with the cleaning strips...) to "Picasso's Blue Period" (I will not reveal who wore this or what she wore but it is to this day my favorite costume) to the "XY Swim Team" (when my dorm buddy & I dressed as sperm with swim goggles and white capes...), I have always tried to live up to some of those college costumes I guess!  My whole family gets into costumes for lots of different occasions.  We used to dress as a family (Wizard of Oz, Angels & Devils, Mummy Family) until the kids got old enough to want their own "thang"...like last year when Sabrina & her friends did a very good impression of the Hunger Games.  The parents were not to be out-shined when we all dressed as the Capitol Citizens from the same movie.  yeah we totally rocked it. 

OK so how did Holland meausure up for us?  I have to say, I was almost looking forward to a complete 'Hall Pass' this year...not living in "THE Trick-or-Treat Neighborhood" where I like to make a big graveyard in the front lawn for the hundreds and hundreds of kids that drive from all over to visit our flat streets in Incline was going to be a slight relief!  Not buying 16 mega-bags of Costco candy was going to be nice!  Not coming up with *& buying* some creative costume for each member of this family was going to put me on easy street this year.  However, I really hoped that some sort of celebration would happen so we didn't just roll from October 30 to November 1 without any liquid eyeliner whatsoever!!

First of all, I was excited that Sabrina was invited to a costumed birthday party the weekend before Halloween where they went to a Haunted Dungeon and had dinner on a haunted canal boat.  Pretty cool.  And I was able to help her & a few friends get their makeup on.   They had a great time & were not "too cool" to dress up which is pretty good for a bunch of 12-yr old girls.

In advance of Halloween, I was fortunate enough to learn from some of the moms at our school about a wonderful tradition that some expat families started in a neighborhood very close to ours about 16 years ago.  They organized a number of homes to be open for kids to come by & trick-or-treat.   It is super organized & has grown to over 60 families.  We pre-registered, dropped off our 6 bags (the bags here are small... it was about the same as 2 US Halloween candy bags) of donated candy at the designated house, received a map of all the participating homes via email the day before, & were told we could come by between 5:00 - 8:00 on Halloween night.

Halloween day, there were no costumes at school because some non-American booked school pictures for Oct 31!  Yikes that's funny.  Must have been the same hilarious person who also booked a school field trip for Kai's class on that day.  They were not expected to return back to school until after 5:30.  OK so that sounds like still enough time to go try the trick-or-treating, right?  Well to jump to the end of that part of the story, Kai (& Bryan, the class trip chaperone) did not return until almost 8:00 pm because the bus got stuck behind an accident.  Kai was a really good sport & all I had to do was buy him a bunch of KitKats to make up for the candy he didn't get going door-to-door.🤪  I was just bummed no one saw the Enderman costume & the Minecraft block I spent all day making!! 

For Sabrina, the trick-or-treating started out kinda lame.  Hello, she was with her lame mother!   Yes, I had a blue wig & fake eyelashes!  You just cannot put me in a socially exceptable costume-wearing situation & expect me to dress like I do everyday!!  Please don't ask a tiger to change her stripes...  Fortunately for Sabrina, after walking around with me for an hour & grabbing like 10 pieces of candy, she spotted all her gal pals who screamed her name & ran up to her & giggled all over her & were so happy to see her... so mama faded like a ghost into the shadows.  It was so cute. 

School allowed the upper grades to wear costumes to school the next day ( really!?  again I'm putting eyelashes on my daughter?? ) so at least they were into the idea of celebrating!

I will give credit to the organizing group of families & there were even a few open parties on the street like a hair salon & a dentist office that catered food & drinks & djs (these companies were really smart in marketing this way.. I now have a hair salon!).  Many houses ran out of candy early but that happens all the time.  If it were not for the rain, I think I would have enjoyed myself, especially since I was handed not one but two cups of red wine during the course of the night.  All right, Dutchies (or expats!?), you sure got that part right!!