A Low-Key Halloween

Anna as a ladybird (or ladybug as they call them in the US) with two antenna.

Many people have asked me, "Do they have Halloween in England?" The answer is yes but, it's not a very big deal. There were things in the stores that did seem to be bought, I did see decorations out and even a few carved pumpkins. However, on Friday night when I was out, I saw no trick-or-treaters on my street and only a few on the larger street up the hill. I also had a hard time finding a baby costume and had to get Anna's outfit at the toy library (they have dress-ups).

That's not to say that the evening went completely without celebration. I called my friend Jana (who is American) and we were going to get together and do sugar cookies. Then she called me later and said that a friend of hers was going to have a bunch of people at their place and eat cookies and chat and would we like to come? I had met that friend before and said sure. I was a little worried about Anna because we were going after the hosts' son had gone to bed but they said we could put her down at their house if we needed to.

Caught in the bright flash with a cookie. She looks almost guilty.

So I dressed Anna up in her costume, fanagled her into her stroller and away we went (Jason wasn't there, there was a lecture at school he wanted to go to and we said he could join us when it was over or just have some alone time at home, whatever he wanted). After a bus and a lot of walking we got there. I knew most of the people, there was just one couple I hadn't met before but they were really nice and it was a lot of fun. People appropriately oohed and ahhed over Anna in her cute outfit and she had a blast playing with the little boy's toys.

Asleep waiting for the bus.

We stayed way too late. Anna was going strong but it might have had something to do with the un-iced sugar cookies Janna gave her or the lollipop I let her have a taste of then had to wrangle it out of her hands. Jason decided not to join us but it was ok. When we finally left, Anna fell asleep in the stroller. Unfortunately, she was all warm and cozy on the bus but when we got off, she had a bit of a rude awakening in the cold night air. She was shaking all over she was so cold. So we rearranged her blanket to cover more of her and Jana gave up her scarf to put over her head (I was kicking myself for not bringing her hat, I was worried about her 'antenna') and practically ran down the street to get inside as soon as possible. In spite of all that, it was a lot of fun.