Hallowe'en 2020 was a dismal affair. Essentially it was banned because of COVID.
This year, even though COVID is still with us, with a high rate of vaccination the decision was made by public health authorities to have a COVID friendly Hallowe'en.
People still took precautions - children were encouraged to travel in small groups, not shout or get too excited.
Those of us who have been children or around children shook our heads at that direction. Imagine telling kids to not get excited or shout on Hallowe'en . . . not happening!
Generally Hallowe'en is a bit of a rush for us. You know the routine -r ace home from work, carve pumpkins, get set up, make dinner, hand out candies. In fact, I used to take half a day as a action day in the past although that was pretty impossible the last few years. Retired jerry has all the time in the world. LOL
It helped that Hallowe'en fell on a weekend this year. The available time increased dramatically.
We pulled the decorations out a couple of weeks ago. We used almost all of 'em.
One of our neighbours chided me for using my pension to buy Hallowe'en decor. I laughed and said we hadn't bought a thing we just had things in storage for many years.
During the day we carved the pumpkins . . . and did the bad pet owner thing of dressing up the cats.
Beckett tolerated it the most. Then again, as a senior kitty he pretty much tolerates anything!
Because of COVID we set up at the end of the driveway. That way we didn't have crowds in a tight space by the door. We handed out the treats and ensured that a bunch of random kids weren't rifling through the bowl of treats.
Yes, those ARE Hallowe'en wine glasses (thank you Carolyn) and we kept them filled with a nice Pinot Noir throughout the evening.
Most of our neighbours had a similar set up.
It was a lovely night. People were so happy to be out. The kids had a good time. People interacted safely. We met people on our street we didn't know (we've lived here for 18 years. LOL)
In fact, we thought it was one of the best Hallowe'ens ever.
At 7:30 we sorted of closed up and moved indoors.
Kids were still coming around but we were hungry!
Our traditional Hallowe'en dinner is a chill and cream cheese dip followed by a bowl of chili over hot buttered noodles. This year I added some home made pretzel bites which were a happy addition. Dessert was a couple of appropriately themed cookies from a local bakery.
All in all it was a lovely evening.
I hope that you had a good Hallowe'en as well.