October 30, 2010

Finally the day the kids have been waiting for so long had arrived. Halloween is normally celebrated on October 31, as most of you will know. However, it turns out that some adults believe that it is better to celebrate it on a Saturday, so the kids can stay up late without worrying about school the next day. Since there is no holy committee of elders who decide in these matters the city of Chattanooga has been divided by its citizens into random pockets of Saturday Halloween and October 31 Halloween.

Not too long ago this situation would probably have led to anarchy, vicious fighting with many dead and wounded, tragically split families, vendettas spanning generations, and the establishment of two rival groups; the Church of the Latter-day October 31st-ians and the Reformed Church of Saturdayians.

The neighborhood we are staying in is celebrating on Saturday,  October 30.

We got up early today, some of us at least before 10am. After a good breakfast we headed over to a costume store with an impressive number of choices. We were prepared to wade through hanger after hanger of costumes and the hassle of pulling them out and then putting them back again. No such thing. These guys were professionals, just find your costume and give them your size and the costume reference number. It was still difficult to choose:

After some tough decision making all three kids found what they liked the most. I scanned the adult costumes, and there was no doubt in my mind which one was the best for me.

Someone in the store must have been in a real hurry to get things ready for Halloween, as we found this slightly misleading sign when looking for accessory stuff for the boys. Or maybe Chattanooga is more progressive than i thought?

After securing the necessary stuff for the evening we dropped by Michelle’s house. She is the daughter of Gwen and Bob and had 3 kick scooters lying around. The kids were ecstatic .

Gwen and Bob then took us down to walk a part of the Tennessee Riverwalk, a really nice walking path along the Tennessee river. The weather was perfect and we all appreciated the great views and the blue sky.



We also saw some turtles on a fallen tree:

I had tried to call Iseline’s best friend, Johanna, earlier in the day and had left a message. As we stopped to have some ice cream her father called me back. Iseline was very happy to talk to her friend for the first time in a month.

She told her she wanted to take the plane alone to Norway to be with her. Later in the day I understood that Iseline had actually dreamt this. When we got back Iseline made a drawing for Johanna showing her dream. Iseline made me promise to put it up on the blog so Johanna could see it. Here it is:

After a late lunch it was time to test the costumes and attack the pumpkins:

We were happy with the results. Adrian single-handedly carved the scary face.

Trick or treating could commence.

The kids got a good catch of candy. The best part is that tomorrow night we are going to drive into one of the enclaves controlled by the Church of the Latter-day October 31st-ians and do it all one more time!

Eirik

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