Halloween

Avonlea Jane was so excited about Halloween. The whole week leading up to Halloween is crazy in Salem, and she loved every minute of it. Every time we would see someone in costume that week she would ask for, "more Halloween, Mommy." We spent the week practicing saying "trick-or-treat" and "happy Halloween," and she was so excited to get to wear her "cotume" again.

On Halloween day, we made sure to check out the crowds in downtown Salem before getting ready to go trick-or-treating. It was a little colder than we expected, and we should have put on coats before leaving the house. Because of the cold, we didn't spend that much time downtown, but we were pleased to see as many great costumes as we did. We missed a lot of the really elaborate costumes on Sunday, as all of the balls and costume contests in Salem were on Saturday night. The most popular costumes we saw this year were pirates, Super Mario Brothers, and Lady Gaga.

Washington Street at around 3:30 p.m., just starting to get busy

Crowds at the intersection of Essex and Washington Streets

One of David's favorite costumes of the day

This is the pedestrian mall (Essex St.) at around 4:00. Normally on Halloween, we visit the pedestrian mall around 6:00. By 7:00, the street will be nearly impossible to walk down because of all of the bodies. Thank goodness Salem closes all of the downtown streets on Halloween to accommodate the crowds.

Avonlea Jane is keeping Mommy's hat in her lap to keep her hands warm on the way home. Everyone knew Avonlea Jane was Dorothy except one woman who complimented Avonlea Jane and David's Raggedy Ann and Andy costumes, which was perfectly alright as Avonlea Jane's dress actually belongs to her Raggedy Ann doll. My grandmother, who made the dress when I was a little girl, would have been thrilled that we could get this Halloween use out of it.

Once we got home, we spent some time getting warmed up in the house with hot chocolate before setting out to trick-or-treat. We decided that warmth trumped costume recognition, so Avonlea Jane went out in a coat and hat. Next year we'll all have to go as skiers or woolly mammoths just to stay warm.

We decided to just go down our street and the main cross street next to us in order to not be out too late and to limit the amount of candy we would have around the house. Avonlea Jane was nervous her first three houses and didn't want to knock on the door herself and she would only whisper "trick-or-treat" and "thank you." However, once she realized every house we went to was going to give her candy, she was racing down the sidewalk: "Next house, Daddy!" She started out using her small Dorothy basket to collect candy and then dumping that candy into the bag David was carrying for her, until she realized she could take more candy with "Daddy's big purse."

At this house (before losing her shoe outside), Avonlea Jane was quite talkative and told the lady all about the family of pumpkins she had in her window. She also thought it was quite funny that she had "popcorn" on her door.

At this house, Avonlea Jane is signing "thank you." By this point in her trick-or-treating, she was the queen of getting candy. We did have to explain that we could only go to each house once, but she developed her own techniques for getting the most candy, including: "two hands, please," while holding out both hands or, "more candy, please," after someone would hand her one piece. Whenever there was a basket full of candy offered to her, she would grab handfuls. We did tell her that one piece was enough, but everyone thought she was so adorable, they would double whatever she would take. These candy tricks will only work while she's this small.

She was a good sport about the end of trick-or-treating, as we counted down the last five houses we went to until Avonlea Jane declared, "no more houses!"

Her last stop was trick-or-treating at our house, where Mommy gave her a Twizzler and a bottle of bubbles.

Avonlea Jane is holding up her choice of what piece of candy she would get to eat that night. Every time she was given a choice of what candy to choose out of a basket at a house, she would grab a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup; next year we will have to do some coaching on what Mommy and Daddy's favorite candies are.

She loved passing out candy at our house almost as much as she liked getting it herself. Every time there was a knock at the door, she would run to it: "More kids! Happy Halloween!"

Mommy and Daddy after a very happy Halloween