Hall-O-Ween

i say halloween wrong. or so im told. I blame this on the fact that my last name is in it, and the excitement that brought me as a child. halloween used to hold months of planning. a bride. a bunny. a Japanese girl. the color purple. cinderella (the cinder part). coming up with a costume was alway so exciting. I remember coming home from school and instantly getting ready. I would have to make sure everything was perfect. As i have gotten older it has lost some of its magic. Realizing I can just drive over to the store and buy as much candy as I want takes the allure of trick-or-treating away. (plus people tend to frown upon a twenty-one year old girl trick-or-treating for herself).

I have found recently that the magic now comes from the younger generation. Christmas is more exciting because of the little ones who still believe in santa. and halloween is more exciting because you get to see them dressed up and excited to get candy. So what does one do- they hang out with the youngsters on such holidays. I am blessed to have family so close, with Matt and Keri and their four kids only a 7 minute drive from my apartment. They give me a home away from home. There has been many a time I called Keri when I was upset and needed someone to cry to, the feed me, house me, and provide me with a break from the normal provo life. Sunday was one such day. A delicious dinner of hawaiian haystacks and four pumpkins later, I was experiencing halloween the little kid way. Ethan (their 1.5 year old) was climbing on the counter, excited about the insides of pumpkins and trying to use each pumpkin as a seat. The girls cleaned out the insides of their pumpkins and sent them my way to pick out the seeds. Ari wanted to count them all, but settled with me picking out "at least 500!" Lucky for me, Jeff taught me the trick of using water and letting the seeds float. I also acquired the role of family photographer- clicking away on Matt's wonderful camera. (unfortunately, I do not have said pictures). The night was full of fun, gook, and of course catching up with Becca and Keri.

That was not the end of our Halloween goodness. There was the actual day of halloween. I think the highlight was getting out of my car, seeing the kids in their costumes, and hearing ethan yell something along the line of "ellie" as he ran towards me. Nothing beats a little tiger loving you. Keri once again fed me, delicious soup, and then the kids and I headed over to the church for some good old fashioned trunk-or-treating. Ethan quickly became a pro trick-or-treater with the help of his older siblings. When we got to trunk-or-treating it was nearing the end so we didnt stay long. We headed back home and then the girls and I went to the town homes. My favorite was the women who made the girls each do a trick for their candy. Lorien just stood their and giggled. Eventually she realized there was no way Lorien could do anything but giggle and gave her a piece anyway. Then it was off to the magical neighborhood.

This neighborhood truly is magical. Old trees line the road with lamp posts. The houses are any little girl's dream home. The houses were decorated for the occasion, and the street was filled with kids. The best was the house that has candy for the kids and hot chocolate for the adults. With how magical the neighborhood was for halloween, we could only imagine the magic that it must have at christmas time. One sunday family activity will be going and seeing the lights. 

The night ended with the traditional pretzels and sorting of candy. My nieces and nephews are the nicest and each gave me a reese's when i wanted a single one. The pretzels were amazing- Keri is an amazing cook, and I tend to reap the benefits often. The conversation left us laughing until our stomachs hurt. The main topics. The song Friday and the abnormally large size of the hall family's heads. Tape measures were used. I am proud to say I had the smallest of the halls present coming in at a whopping 22.75 inches. Matt was the winner at approximately 23.75.

It was a wonderful halloween filled of good memories even if my costume was that of a study abroad student wearing jeans and a shirt from london, with a london headband and london ring. Dear london, thank you for the costume.