The end of October brought us the southern California wildfires...they were devastating. Thankfully, our little valley remained sandwiched in between all of the fire activity, but as it filled with smoke and ash, we knew that we were merely lucky that it wasn't us on the news, being evacuated, having to leave our homes, and praying to be spared by the fires. School was cancelled for two days because the air was so bad it hurt your lungs to be outside. When Jeff returned home from work the other night at 11:00, he called me out to the street in front of our house. From that vantage point, you could see the flames on the mountains south of Temecula. That REALLY freaked us out, but apparently what we were seeing was in Fallbrook, which is a safe distance to the south of us, but at night the flames looked so much closer! Luckily, the fires have been contained and our area was spared. When a tragedy of this magnitude happened so close to our house, it made all of us reflect on our blessings and how easily things of this world can be taken away. We are keeping the fire victims in our prayers. I can't imagine losing everything. Finally, the smoke cleared, and it was time to celebrate Halloween. I loved Halloween as a kid, and my girls talk about their costumes from October to October...last night they were already talking about what they would dress up as NEXT year.
Emma dressed as Gabriella from High School Musical. She wore a brown wig and a red outfit, and refused to put on any makeup except a bit of lip gloss. Grace was Hannah Montanna (of course!) with her rock star outfit, fancy wig, and headset. Grace wore oodles of makeup and it freaked me out to look at her little face...a tiny hint of the made-up teenage face of the future. Scary.
We trick or treated with some of our teacher pals and their families, up and down our neighborhood, and then came back to inspect, eat, and pass out candy. The dogs dressed up as well: Livvy the ballerina, Sophie the Bumble Bee (again) and Marty the ladybug. (He was embarrassed...not a very manly costume!)
At one point during the evening, Megan rang the doorbell. She was with a million of her girlfriends, all dressed up to trick or treat. Some of the girls (including Meg) had dressed up as skater boys. When they left, Grandma Otti said, "Isn't it funny how the girls are so much taller than the boys?" We said, "They were all girls, Grandma!" She didn't listen to us, but proceeded to pick through each kids' Halloween candy, pulling out the really good stuff to stash in her underwear drawer. (She'd never admit it, but we all know that's where she hides the candy she doesn't want share.)
Hee heee hee.
