Last year, our Halloween was delayed because of a freak snowstorm. This year, it’s anybody’s guess when it will happen. Luckily Madeline’s school had arranged a trunk-or-treat event the Sunday before Hurricane Sandy struck, so they were able to squeeze in a little bit ‘o festivities beforehand.
There are some schools of thought that in the grand scheme of things, Halloween shouldn’t matter or even be a second thought when there is so much devastation and restoration to contend with.
I don’t agree.
The kids need a little bit of happy in their lives right now. Let us adults deal with the grown-up stuff. The kids have all been such troopers in the last week, if we can give them a little piece of Halloween, why not? Nick’s school is in the process of organizing a trunk-or-treat for this weekend, and I think we’re all looking forward to a bit of regular life amidst things like dealing with power loss and gas shortages. And the trunk-or-treat guarantees the kids’ safety so we don’t have to worry about contending with down wires, fallen trees, and road closures.
And as we’ve done in previous years, we’ll donate our unwanted Halloween candy to the Halloween Candy Buy Back program. Participating dentists will pay a dollar a pound for what you don’t want, and then they send the candy to the troops overseas.
My kind of program.
The kids choose their very favorite pieces, we add in some of my parents’ very favorite pieces, and the rest of it goes. They don’t trick-or-treat for the haul, they do it for the fun.
We still need to get our Halloween costume picture on our favorite neighborhood rock, as we’ve done every year. Hoping to get to it sometime this week.
Now for the rest of you celebrating Halloween? The folks at Shutterfly are having a Howl-O-Ween Photo contest on Facebook now through November 7th. You can enter your Halloween photos to win some pretty awesome prizes (two night stay at Great Wolf Lodge! generous Shutterfly gift certificates!). And we’re going to take this one step further… one lucky commenter on THIS post will win a $75 Shutterfly gift card towards a Shutterfly purchase. Perfect timing for those sending holiday cards in the next few months. Which is something I totally plan to get on when things get back to normal.
PRIZE: One $75 Shutterfly gift card
TO ENTER: Comment on this post and tell me your favorite Halloween memory or costume.
FOR MORE ENTRIES: Tweet this post. Or Pin this post (you can do that by using the handy little buttons at the bottom of this post) and comment that you’ve done so. Or follow me on Twitter, Pinterest, or Instagram, if you don’t already (and come back and tell me you do).
GIVEAWAY CLOSES: Wednesday, November 7, 2012 at 11:59 pm EST
WINNER ANNOUNCED: In an upcoming post and via Twitter. If winner doesn’t respond with address info within 48 hours, a second winner will be chosen.
NUMBER OF WINNERS: One
FINE PRINT: The winner will be selected using random.org.
Tomorrow? We share some of our very best tips for preparing for an emergency. Things that might not have occurred to us before Hurricane Sandy. Lessons learned, if you will.
Obviously new recipe posts will not be happening here until we get our power back and life resumes its natural routine a bit. I’m sure you understand.
*This post was sponsored by Mom It Forward and the kind folks at Shutterfly. And, of course, all opinions are my very own. Natch.
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{ 34 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m so glad you guys are going to celebrate even in the wake of all this! The kids deserve their Halloween…at least to distract them a little bit from everything else!
Joanne recently posted..Recipe: Acorn Squash Boats with Quinoa {12 Weeks of Winter Squash}
Kids need Halloween, and the distraction. So do adults.
My favorite Halloween memory was the year that my parents let me host a Halloween party. My friends and I stayed up all night watching horror movies, telling ghost stories and eating candy. My dad was great. He told so many ghost stories that night and kept us squealing in excitement and fear. Oh the memories!
My favorite Halloween memory was Jake’s 2nd one – he finally figured out that he was getting candy – he went up to every house on the street – and if people weren’t home he pressed his little face on the glass door and said “hewwo, twick or tweet”- so cute!!
I follow you on Twitter :-)
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My favorite Holloween memory is from THIS year!! I just had my first baby in late September and it was SO fun seeing my little one bundled in a halloween onesie as we celebrated with friends and family. I know it’s just the beginning of many fun Halloweens to come!
I also pinned the giveaway. My pinterest name is Katie Johnson.
I found your blog via pinterest and have loved trying out some of your recipes… Thanks for doing this giveaway and for inspiring me in the kitchen!
I loved my two ninja boys this year, my older serious boy in his dark serious costume and my young freespirit in his more colorful one stabbing his toy sword into the bushes with giggling glee.
tweeted https://twitter.com/kdkdkd/status/266279011758534656
My favorite was Wonder Woman.
my favorite halloween costume was the M&Ms bag i was when i was 8 years old!
My favorite Halloween memory was my sons first Halloween. Granted he was a baby but it was so fun dressing him up and taking pictures. He was a lion!
We used to bob for apples, which was always fun.
My favorite costume was Waldo.
Hands down was spending Halloween in Disney with the kids..the parade, the characters, and the trick or treating through Magic Kingdom – ah-mazing! They were Mickey & Minnie of course :-)
Tweeted, pinned & FB’d
One of my favorite costumes was a pea pod for my newborn baby!
I would have to say that my favorite costume is not one worn by me but by all 3 of my children on their very first Halloween. I dressed each of them in the same red M&M costume that I still have to this day.. They were so adorable.
My favorite costume was the Rainbow Brite costume my mom made for me. My daughter’s was her 1st Halloween. She was a penguin & at 2 months, pretty much just laid there – but she looked darn cute! We hope Halloween in our town will be this Saturday. They organized a Trunk or Treat. My daughter will be a zebra…have to get in the “cutesy” costumes while she’s still little!
My boys (3 & 1) were Mario & Luigi this year! I did their costumes together and everyone loved them, especially the mustaches!:)
My favorite Halloween costume was when I was a child and my mother made me a costume using a clear plastic garbage bag and filled it with colored balloons so I was a bag of jelly beans.
lisalmg25 at gmail dot com
I Tweeted this giveaway: https://twitter.com/lisalmg/status/266366092853788672
I’m following you on Twitter @lisalmg.
I’m following you on Pinterest user Lisa Garner. http://pinterest.com/lisalmg/
lisalmg25 at gmail dot com
I Pinned this giveaway: http://pinterest.com/pin/774124907532606/
My favorite Halloween costume was my sons homemade popcorn box! He hated how bulky he was but he won the costume contest that year!!
Halloween can be a lot of fun even today. One of my favorites was when my daughter was two and we dressed her as Little Bo Peep.
When my daughter was 3 she was a dinosaur. She thought she was sooo scary, but really she was just adorable. Every time I looked at her I couldn’t help but laugh. She would get so mad! I still think about that and giggle. :-)
I follow on twitter and tweeted :-) @dogcopG2
https://mobile.twitter.com/dogcopG2/status/266377060715483137?p=p
My favorite costume was a Tinkerbell costume!
My favorite memory of halloween is when my mom would hold small parties @our house 4 my siblings & friends when I was little.
my fave memory was going to the Disneyland Halloween party for the first time last year
LOVE the unicorn costume! Great pics and great costumes throughout the years. How fun.