The Year They Cancelled Halloween

Well this year we did all of the things we usually do to prepare for Halloween ...
We carved the pumpkins and baked pumpkin seeds. We even painted a few pumpkins.

But we weren't really prepared for a White Halloween :)
And BOY did it snow... it snowed so hard... and so much...


That our power went out as well as 80% of our town - power lines and trees fell down everywhere.... so they cancelled trick or treating...
A friend of ours lives in a very old farm house and invited us over for hotel-style trick or treating. Behind each door of their home, an adult stood with a bowl of candy and the children went door to door.
It was wonderful and sweet... and we were so grateful to have something to do with the children on such a special day without traditional trick or treating allowed in our neighborhood. Then we were invited to some other friends who live in a neighboring town where trick or treating WASN'T cancelled... SCORE!
We hit their place next! Two times the fun! Could it get better than that?
Well actually it got worse.... we didn't just lose power for one night - we lost it for SIX entire nights. After the third evening, the coldness really set in. The house was freezing... so cold that all of our fish died. We had no source of heat except our fireplace so we found every single blanket we could in our home, moved three mattresses into the family room and the six of us plus two dogs and our cat lived that way for a week. It wasn't easy... but it really taught us a lesson or two about how very lucky we are. We soon realized what was truly a 'need' and a 'want' in our lives.... to the extent that we even spoke about the fact that we really didn't NEED a four bedroom home. It was a luxury that we are more grateful for now... but we could live in one room and we proved it that week.
At the end of the week when our power returned, our town put together a Trunk or Treat for the children so they could dress up and enjoy the holiday... soooooo...
Round THREE of trick or treating took place for our girls....
So much for cancelling Halloween - we got triple the candy!

xoxo