Church-Crashing, Candy, and the Great Quest to Find Holly

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

(officially.)

We both worked today - you know, 'cause we're grown ups and have to contribute to society (like a couple'a suckers), but in the evening the ladies catted themselves up, I grabbed a camera, and we set out for sugary plunder.

Check it out:

The White Cat

The Black Cat

This is the only time of year when seeing something like this isn't out of the ordinary.  Of course, then again, this is Florida. . .

We hooked up with some friends of Kris' for Trunk or Treating at this random church that absolutely none of us attend (located somewhat near our old house, around the corner from the library.)  It was free, and our family is big on 'free.'

That's Sophia, one of Abby's friends from school.  You may or may not recall the girls recently were in attendance at her birthday soiree. 

(I think this lady's having a stroke.)

(This one, too.)

Making the rounds with a six-foot-tall Olaf.

Homegirls.

The Cannonball is not amused.

The church hired some food trucks to feed its patrons this year, which was very hipster-ly of them.

I dressed up as a disgruntled middle school teacher this year.

Note the kid sitting on the pumpkins. . . like you're never supposed to do.

The temperature was dropping fast, and all four of us decided it'd be smart to drive home real fast (as we were only a couple blocks away) in order to grab some light jackets before we started Trick or Treating througout the neighborhood.)  Of course, once we got back into Kris' van and saw the actual temperature outside, we all felt like a bunch of vaginas.

I left the SLR at home for the actual Trick or Treating, as I don't like being obnoxious with a flash around crowds at night.  As a result, what little pictures I did take didn't amount to much.  Not that me leaving the SLR at home really mattered, anyway- lots of people were snapping  away throughout the neighborhood.  Anyway, our kids were pretty exhausted from the onset, so we didn't do much candy-collecting this year.  Early on in the Trick or Treating, Alayna bumped into one of her friends, and after parting ways, that was all she cared about - finding Holly.

We drove over to our old subdivision in order to score more candy for the kids (where we were previously had some really awesome houses decorated, but they were few and far between.)  Sadly, the same situation awaited us in the new neighborhood, but the silver lining to this was that those people handing out candy wanted to be rid of it, and almost every house we stopped at dumped most of their bowls in our kids' bags.  After two or three houses, the kids were topped off.

We ended up returning to the original neighborhood in order to stop by Holly's house (Kris is friends with the family, we're not stalkers trust us,) if only to get Alayna - who was far past bedtime - off our backs.

The girls were dead on their feet when we finally got home, but they were stubborn about going to bed.  They wanted to watch a Halloween movie and eat some of their candy, and, being the festive lot that we are, we obliged.

The girls have really been enjoying Tim Burton's A Nightmare Before Christmas lately - which I'm 100% cool with.

So while they watched that, Yours Truly dumped out all their plunder on the floor and began sorting through it, searching for poisoned fruit, hidden razor blades, dirty syringes, and all those other urban legends that the media hypes up but that no one you've ever seen or heard of has ever witnessed firsthand. . .

Establishing a spooky atmosphere for our Halloween movie night (though I'm not sure if those lovely family portraits are helping the mood at all. . .)

I usually pass on pumpkin beers (they're waaaay overrated, if you ask me), but this one from Shipyard is really good.  Personally, I attribute this to its 9% ABV.

And so ends the Hough Family's Halloween - a king's ransom in candy plundered, cases of fall craft beers stocked, and legions of pumpkin spice candles burned.  If it's one thing this family does well, it's holidays. . .

And we all know which holiday is coming up next. . .

- Brian