Halloweentime 2020

Halloween this year was different that we expected. We had planned a Disneyland trip where we would have been at a Halloween party on Halloween night, but COVID-19 ruined those plans. Instead we stayed close to home and spent time with family. 

Trick or Treat Street

Halloween festivities came early this year. Our community, Daybreak, put together an event the week before Halloween called Trick or Treat Street. The event consists of a variety of booths where kids can trick or treat and have other Halloween themed experiences. This year they adjusted the event by spreading it our more, requiring everyone wear a mask, and having people sign up for a specific time slot. 

We signed up to take Skylee. Then on the day of trick or treat street Dan was busy with work, and Kristin had class so we volunteered to spend the day with Holly and Skylee. It was a fun day. We took them both the park. We watched the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Debbie came over and made mummy Rice Krispies treats with Skylee. Then we drove around Daybreak to see all of the fun Halloween decorations. There are some epic decorations around Daybreak. 

In the afternoon we went to Trick or Treat Street. Skylee had fun getting candy and seeing all of the decorations. I think her favorite part was when she got to meet a whole bunch of mermaids. They loved her costume. Trick or Treat street was a fun pre-Halloween activity. 

Halloween Eve

Last time Skylee slept over she was so sad to leave at the end of the weekend that she and Alison went ahead and planned her next sleepover. They planned it for the night before Halloween. They planned all of the fun activities we would do - make/decorate cookies, watch a scary movie and have brunch of Halloween. 

Skylee even came up with a clever invite for the brunch: 

Dear Gentleghosts and Goulies, 

You are invited to a monster mash brunch at nana's house on Halloween. There will be dancing and food. All of Skylee's family is invited. 

The night before Halloween Jake, Meg, Dan, Kristin and their girls came over for dinner. We had Papa Murphy's pizza - including a festive Jack-O-Lantern Pizza.

We also decorated sugar cookies. We got a witch sugar cookie kit form Little Hill Cookie Co. It was awesome - the cookies were fun to decorate and tasted great. 

After dinner and cookie decorating we watched the new version of The Witches that came out this year. It was a fun halloween movie. Everyone seemed to agree the witches were pretty creepy. Skylee slept over at our house after the movie. 

Skylee used paper towel and tape to dress up her favorite stuffies for Halloween. She is such a creative kid.

Halloween

On Halloween we had the planned family brunch. We kept our festivities small this year - all of the activities involved the same group. While it was an unusual year we still had a great time. Debbie made Æbleskivers (which Skylee loved to say are her favorite), Dan and Kristin provided drinks, Meg brought a breakfast casserole and Alison whipped up some baked apples.

We all dispersed for the afternoon. At home Alison and I reverse trick or treated a few of our neighbors. We let them know we were coming in advance and we wore masks. We brought them full size Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. I liked this way better than normal trick or treating. 

Halloween night we reconvened at Kristin and Dan's house for more food and fun. Kristin made an amazing tortellini soup and had quite a spread of snacks. We ate and the adults talked. I played games on these stairway with our nieces and their set of plastic ball pit balls. We had threw those plastic balls up and down the stairs for at least an hour. I also watched The Haunted Mansion and Toy Story of Terror with Skylee. It was a fun Halloween night. 

Pre-covid we had big plans for our costumes this year, but they were dashed. Instead we are like a Marvel end credit scene - we are foreshadowing our costumes next year.