Halloween, Part II

I've learned a lot about Halloween this year, mostly the differences between Minnesota and Iowa Halloween.  I've lived in Minnesota for four+ years now, and this is only the second time I've had the opportunity to hand out candy.

In Iowa, we trick-or-treated the day before Halloween.  Thanks to the Internet, I discovered this is only common practice in parts of Iowa, Ohio, and New England, though we never referred to it as Beggar's Night.  There are also set start and end times.  Not here.  "When it gets dark out," I was told. 

When I was a kid, we'd usually start around 5:30 and go until 8 (this was also back in the day when DST had already kicked in, so it was plenty dark at 5:30).  My brothers and I could come home with a huge plastic pumpkin full of candy in this short amount of time.  We were dedicated.  And loved love candy.

But enough reminiscing...our first trick-or-treater, the next-door neighbor kids, rang the bell at 6:30, just at dusk.  The last kids came around about 8:15.  In total, Louis handed out candy to 42 kids, I handed out to 1. : )  Some of the kids were scared of his costume!

He's the Phantom of the Opera (sans cape)!

While Louis was doling out the treats, I was whipping up a very Halloween-appropriate dinner:  pumpkin sage soup.  I love cooked pumpkins.  They just glow.

As I was pureeing the soup in the blender, I gave Louis a good scare.  The pressure from the whirring soup caused the blender top to pop up just enough to give a good splatter and to burn my palm.  In a "my hand is burnt" panic, I left the blender on and ran to the sink.  From an onlooker's perspective, I can see how this might appear that I lost a finger or two...

But all was well in the end.

So I guess that's it for Halloween 2010.  We'll be better prepared next year, buy less candy, and Louis's costume promises to be scarier (we'll be better established in the 'hood by then, you know).

So here's a little treat for you.  A roundup of some of my best costumes!  (I recently scanned all these for our wedding slide show.)

I loved this one.  Those Boo glasses glowed in the dark.  And I remember (my mom) RIT-dying my Keds green for this occasion.  The little turtle nostrils-ahh!

My aunt made this poodle skirt.  It was originally for a ballet recital.  And that large plastic pumpkin to my right would be at least 3/4 filled by the end of the night.  I'm also pretty sure the cat-carved pumpkin, second step, belonged to me, which is weird because I don't think I've ever liked cats.

And lastly...

Cheerleader Minnie!  The saddle shoes, the skinny colored belts, the leggings...so cool!  Thanks, Mom, for some seriously awesome childhood costumes.