"I got a rock"

As Halloween approached I found myself missing home for than ever. Not because I am not enjoying France, but particularly because Halloween is one of my favorite celebrations, and it is not celebrated the same here.  They do celebrate All Saints Day on November 1^st by going to church if they are religious and putting flowers and the graves of loved ones. It’s a school holiday, which is awesome, but there is no trick or treating… and that is the main thing… There are parties at bars for adults and maybe parties at school for children, but like I said no big family celebration and no TRICK OR TREATING.  

As Halloween came nearer I began to think of how we would celebrate here with our little family. Of course I am dreaming of when I have children old enough to enjoy getting dressed up just for the fun of it, bobbing for apples, making candied apples, and carving pumpkins, but this year Adrien is still too little, so I had to come up with something else. I bought Snickers and Twix, because they remind me of home, and some chocolate covered dinosaur cookies and bubbles for Adrien, and made little trick or treat bags for the four of us and put them out around our Halloween pumpkin to be discovered by all. Kind of Easter-ish, but I did my best ;) We had them on the 30^th because Tristan had an interview on the 31^st and his mom was going to be out of town as well. 

On Halloween it was just me, Adrien, and some great fall weather, so I thought it would be nice to go out. We happen to live a three minutes walk from Pere Lachaise Cemetery which is reputed to be the worlds most visited cemetery. So, I thought, “Why not, it seems like a spooky thing to do on Halloween.” It was anything but spooky, but we had a great time nonetheless. It was hard to have an eerie feeling in a place so crowded by visitors. Alone in a cemetery maybe, at night certainly, but we were not alone: far from it! and it was not night.  It turned out to be a great idea. Adrien played in the fallen leaves and ran up and down the aisles. He even climbed a few tombstones and entered a few sepulchers, although I did TRY to keep him off. Try being the word, because I am raising a little monkey. ;)

After getting Adrien off to bed I ended my night by watching It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, before going to bed.  In the cartoon the whole gang goes trick or treating together and after each house they each recount how they got candy or cookies or gum, but each time Charlie Brown says, “I got a rock.” All I can say is this: There may be no trick or treating in France, but at least I didn’t get a rock. ;)