October!

Is it really the middle of October already???? Wow! As usual, the Holiday season is fast approaching! And, as usual, I'm not quite ready for it! I guess I was a little blown away when I received a Scholastic catalogue in the boys' school bags. A Scholastic catalogue? Where are we? Don't get me wrong...I absolutely LOVED seeing it, as it reminds me of home! ESPECIALLY since the entire catalogue features books covering American Election Days, Halloween, American Thanksgiving and Christmas!? Well, uh, that's great...but what about the other 163 students in the school and THEIR holiday interests?? There are only a few American kids in the school...and I have two of them. I have to assume the election and Thanksgiving books are not as popular. For ME, however, I was very excited to look through the catalogues! :)

Which brings me to Halloween! The Halloween Holiday is all a-flutter over here. Surprising! A few party supply shops sell the appropriate Halloween decorations. The selection is VERY minimal! However, you can get costumes for kids and so far, I have seen a total of TWO costumes for adults. Well, alrighty then...life simplified! haha

Being a traditionally "pagan" holiday, many of the bigger International Schools who are Christian based, ie, Yew Chung, Concordia, etc. don't allow their kids to dress up for the Holiday at school. But, since these same kids live in [mostly] expat communities, they get to celebrate it anyway through their compounds. Many of the recreation centers in the expat compounds are having Halloween parties and encouraging the residents to join in the fun for trick-or-treaters.

We have absolutely NO hope of celebrating it in our own community as it is mostly Chinese, but we have been invited to join in the fun at an expat compound. Whew! Even though Halloween looks like it's gaining popularity here, it's surprising that not one single person I have encountered (outside the US) knows anything about it. The fun and flair of the Holiday itself is appealing to the International community...but I have been bombarded by questions about Halloween. Anything from how to decorate one's yard, to the history behind the Holiday (do I even know that answer accurately?), to how to carve pumpkins, to guidance on what to do with the decorations after you use them, ETC!! I have been asked by my good friend, Christine (who is Chinese), to help her decorate her yard. I have been asked by Ryan's teacher to help carve a pumpkin for the class. I have been asked to help my good friend, Cassy (Australian), carve a pumpkin AND to guide her kids through the trick-or-treating process, since they have never done it before.

Wow! I didn't realize just how "American" Halloween really is! Did you know that?? I didn't. I have seen International moms get excited about it over here, but I've come to learn that it's because they have seen IMAGES of the Holiday in America. They are very excited to join in the fun though. :)

I still have not seen a single pumpkin to carve...so...hopefully, I can locate at least a few. haha The boys will be SO pumpkined out! I'm also going to try and explain how [my friends] can clean, dry, roast and eat pumpkin seeds after carving up the pumpkin. It should be fun!

I put up a Halloween decoration around our front door and got quite a few puzzled stares from both our ayi and passersby. They didn't seem to have a clue what the pumpkin decorations represented. One older Chinese man who was walking by, pointed and (I think) asked, out right, what the heck I was doing with the pumpkin stuff? His wife, following behind...just smiled at me and shot out a quick explanation to her Husband, which (I think) could have been translated into, "You know...for kids!" Whatever she said, it seemed to pacify him and they continued on their walk. Wait until they see that we have gutted perfectly good pumpkins just to put lights inside. I can just see their puzzled frowns now.

I keep forgetting that the boys...well, Brandon at least, are of an age where they can help with the decorations. I'm used to doing it for them while they watched. But, life is getting more exciting with the boys during the Holidays now! They came home from school today and were SO excited when they saw the Halloween decorations on the door!! They squealed with unabashed delight! It was so sweet. I'm SOOOO glad I insisted on bringing our Christmas decorations, including their very favorite Holiday trains!

Ryan's teacher LOVES Halloween...although she was one of the people who asked what it was all about. She was so excited to go and get the decorations for her classroom. Unfortunately, the decorations you can buy here don't even come close to the fantastic stuff you can buy in the US! Everything made for the Chinese market is cheaper quality anyway...but I suspect since a lot of people don't have extra storage in their homes, they make it to throw away anyway.

I will have so much fun guiding people through the Holiday. I'm looking forward to it! :) Our trip to Huangshan preceeds Halloween day, so I'm hoping I can help my friends out before or after we come back. Huanghsan...I can't wait for that as well! October is proving to be a good and busy month for us!