Monaloca

We had a jam-packed kickoff to the holidays last weekend, all leading up to trick-or-treat festivities on Monday night. The fun began with a pancake breakfast and haunted house at Melina’s preschool. It’s a huge annual event but somehow we’ve missed it every year since Kai was two. The kids all had a blast, and Nalani even got to see her daycare buddy (and Suli’s sister) Tejal. It was so out of context that both girls just stared at each other blankly.

Sunday we spent down in Livermore, for what looks to be turning into an annual pumpkin patching and wine tasting expedition with the Markel-Macks. This year Karen and Jennifer and families joined us. The weather was stunning, an absolute perfect high-70s with an ever-so-slight breeze. The kids had fun riding with pumpkins in wagons and running through a hay bale maze at G&M Farms. Then we all had fun picnicking (along with several bottles of wine) at Fenestra. To make it an even fuller day, we gave the Hindmarshes a call and stopped by their place for an impromptu visit. The kids played non-stop with Uncle Alan, who Melina says is “even sillier than Daddy or Miss Lisa.”

Monday morning Nalani and I joined Melina on her preschool parade around the block, then caught a glimpse of a surprise pinata when we picked her up that afternoon. For the culminating event we headed to the Schultzes for a moms group potluck and trick-or-treating extravaganza. James had four (yes, four) types of home-brew on tap. All delicious, as was Tracee’s homemade pumpkin ice cream.

While we carried Nalani along for trick-or-treating last year, this was her first full experience of the big candy ask. She got a kick out of all the decorations, and even a silly haunted house set up by a bunch of teenagers. Her vocabulary started to include the word ghost (“gho”) a few weeks ago, and by Halloween night every decoration she saw was “GHO!” here and “GHO!” there, much like all holiday lights became “TREEEEEE!” for Melina when she was the same age.

Nalani also caught on, more or less, to the trick-or-treating ritual. At one of the final houses she stopped at the top of the stairs to fetch a candy out of her pumpkin then tried to give it to the woman handing out candy at the door. For her part, the woman was pretty eager to get rid of the big stash of candy in her bowl, and eventually Nalani agreed simply to take rather than to share. It was very funny, and struck an odd light on how bizarre this tradition is and what it teaches our children at the core, even if we don’t intend to teach them anything but to simply have fun.

Halloween has also evolved. In a new twist for our generation of kids, the Great Pumpkin now makes a visit a few days after Halloween to trade the vast bulk of candy for a little gift. (The kids pick their favorite 15 or so pieces to save, and the rest go to Pumpkinland.) Melina had all sorts of questions about the Great Pumpkin: How big is he? How does he get into the house? He’s part of Santa’s team, right? And without a lot of larger cultural context was a little scared after putting the bag of candy out last night. But all was well when she awoke to a brand new purple unicorn waiting for her in the candy bag’s place.

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