They’re Back… Trick or Treat!

Littletree and Purple arrived home this morning! I was really starting to miss my little girl.

I picked them up at the airport and we came home to unpack – they brought home heaps of stuff.

Then Purple passed out from jet lag, and Littletree and I played together. We made a cubby house for her dolls in the great big washing machine box I got for her (well, actually, I had to buy a washing machine to get that box, but it’s a great box, and therefore worth it!)

Then Littletree wanted to go for a bike ride, so we went around the neighbourhood, and ran in to some of Littletree’s friends. Littletree invited her friends over to play with her new toys from Israel, and the kids were having fun.

After a while, some other kids came to the door and shouted “Trick or treat!”. Well, this might sound strange to those in North America, but this was the very first time someone has ever trick-or-treated me – we don’t really celebrate Hallowe’en in Australia much; never ever at all when I was a kid, but it seems these days, probably due to the influence of American TV and movies, it’s starting to become a bit of a thing.

Anyway, I didn’t have anything treat-worthy to give the kids, so I handed out oranges :) and Littletree and her friends got inspired to go out trick-or-treating as well.

I figured, why not, so the kids raided Littletree’s dress-up basket and off we went.

I was surprised to see a few other kids out treating – I’ve never heard of anyone doing that in Australia. We knocked at about 15 houses, only one of which was actually prepared to give out treats (as it turned out, the mother of a local child who was out trick-or-treating as well), but just about all the other houses, unprepared as I was, good-naturedly came up with something to give the kids, even if it was just a cookie or some fruit.

Most of all, the kids had a fantastic time, and we got to meet some of the neighbours we didn’t meet before.

Along the way we had lots of interesting talks about the history behind Hallowe’en, being All Hallows’ Eve and the traditions around the Day of the Dead, and Samhain, and how in Australia the seasons are opposite than in the northern hemisphere, and it’s actually Easter/ Beltane here, and many divergent topics.

At the end of it, Littletree had a huge bag of treats, mostly candy, chocolate and cookies, but also an apple. Funnily enough, she hasn’t touched any of the sweets, except to give some away, and the only thing she’s eaten was the apple LOL! No doubt that bag of candy will join the other bags of uneaten candy she has sitting on her shelf in the kitchen.

Most of all, it’s great to have her home :D