Halloween

Back when we lived in Athens, and way before we had children, we used to host an annual New Year's party. It was the one time of year one group of our friends all got together. Most of our guests came from out of town and stayed at our house, and the party usually lasted until at least January 2nd. These days things are much tamer and kiddo centered. Yet, despite that, there are many aspects of our annual trick or treat party that are rather similar to the old New Year's parties.

We start by just inviting a few good friends. There are many great things about good friends, and one of them is they never care that our house looks like real life.These are the kind of friends who will step over the giant dog fur balls that pile up and who will happily cart the huge pile of clean laundry from the couch to our bedroom so they have a place to sit. So we could completely get away with not cleaning. But the irony is this is the one group of friends that we actually want to clean the house for. For our old New Year's parties, we were often in the middle of a last minute power-clean when the guests started arriving, and I have distinct memories of the vacuum being the focal point of our living room for the first hour of our party one year. This year's Halloween gathering was no different. Despite having to leave for the boys' soccer game at 10:00, I still managed to sweep and mop most of the house on Saturday morning before we went. (And I folded and put away the several loads of laundry that were on the couch and even cleaned up the dishes in the kitchen from dinner the night before and from breakfast. Who said nothing good came out of the kids getting me up at 5:30 every day?)

We were always at the store at the last minute buying food and drinks for our New Year's parties. This year was no different, and after the soccer game the whole family made a trip to Costco to stock up on food. We came home, I put that away, and then I headed back to Walmart to get a few more things. And oddly, the food is about the same. For the trick-or-treat party, I served a fancy menu of chicken nuggets and french fries. I usually prepared about the same for drunk people.

On New Year's Eve we would stay at our house until midnight and then head uptown to the bars. Because of this, the women, at least, would dress up for the occasion. (No comments on the male attire!) Of course, Halloween is no different. You gotta dress up! Even the grown ups dress up to take the kids out. This year Ree was a girl from the 80s, Leon was Luigi from Super Mario Brothers, Michael was Michelangelo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Natalia was Anna from Frozen.

Finally, on New Year's Eve, after all that fun, somewhat always passed out in a crazy place. This year Halloween was no different.