Halloween

Here is how we celebrated Halloween this year.

First, on October 30th, we went trick-or-treating. Yes, even though Halloween was actually on a Saturday this year. In Durango, the trick-or-treating was on a Friday. And since we couldn't go trick-or treating in our neighborhood, we drove to a fraccionamiento (basically a development) where you could pay to go trick-or-treating. There was even a huge sign outside of the fraccionamiento, advertising their Halloween celebration.

The money was really to pay for a hamburger--and to cover the costs of the event. There was a place where everyone could gather afterwards. The kids could play on the bouncy houses--while the adults ate their hamburgers. I think there might have been other things--but we didn't make it to the event.

But first, there was the photo opp with the cousins.

Then, everyone gathered at the entrance to the fraccionamiento, waiting until it was time to start trick-or-treating. So here we all are, lined up and waiting. We were with Fede's cousin Arlette, and her three sons--plus Arlette's brother-in-law's kids (also all boys).

At some point, we were given the go-ahead and we all started to walk towards the first house and congregated like a mob.

If you weren't quick enough, sometimes the house would run out of candy for that round of kids. (We were in the first round.)

I'm not really sure Elie understood what was happening. But she waited patiently for her turn, and politely said "gracias." But I think she quickly got bored--and told us that she wanted to go home. I was all for that because it was getting late for Mei-Mei, and I really didn't want to deal with having a ton of candy in the house.

This was the first year that Elie got dressed up for Halloween. And I think she enjoyed it.

***

We got dressed up again for the Halloween party.

So now for some background information. As some of you know from reading this blog, we live in the same apartment building as Tia Rocio (Fede's mother's sister) and her husband (Tio Mario). Tio Mario's last name is Cussin. For the past 4 years, the Cussin family has had a Halloween party--and everyone who comes needs to perform a skit. Plus, everyone puts money into a pot--and prizes are awarded to first, second and third place.

I came up with the idea for the skit--which is why Elie dressed up as a cloud. Fede was an old man, I was a rainbow, and Mei-Mei was a bag of gold. Our story was really simple. Elie was "Senorita de las Nubes" and Fede was an old man who had been searching for the gold at the end of the rainbow for all of his life. He sees La Senorita and asks her to make it rain so that there will be a rainbow.

La Senorita complies--and squirts a little spray bottle to make it rain. But nothing happens. The old man is despondent. Then I walk out, carrying Mei-Mei (who is the pot of gold). I say, "Oh no! It's the mean old man who wants to take my gold." Then the old man grabs the rainbow, and snatches the pot of gold.

He says, "Finally! I can do what I have always wanted!" The old man reaches into the bag of gold, and pulls out chocolate gold coins. He asks La Senorita if she can make it rain gold instead of water. La Senorita says "Si!" and runs to pass out the chocolate coins to everyone.

(We didn't know about the prizes until the day of the Halloween party. But once we found out--we thought the chocolate would be a good way to bribe everyone to vote for us.)


Here is everyone waiting for the skits to start.

Sadly, I don't have a picture of us--but here is a picture of Prima Rosy and family, dressed up as characters from the movie Inside Out.

I was a little worried about performing the skit. But it was actually a lot of fun. There was definitely audience participation--people laughing and calling out jokes. I, of course, didn't understand everything that was said. But it was still amusing. Before the Halloween party, I thought these skits were going to be a terrible idea. I was very wrong. It was brilliant.

Surprisingly, we won second place (and 200 pesos)! Maybe we won because we were the newbies. Or maybe because Elie did a great job. She was the only child that had lines to say in the skit. In fact, she may have had more lines than I did. Or maybe it was the chocolate coins.