Fall is here! It’s hard to tell when you live in Arizona, well, the Valley anyways. There are no trees changing color and we’re still waiting for the temps to get out of the high nineties. After ten years of living here it still seems strange that we haven’t had a snow storm.
 
In Canada the leaves would have fallen. We would spend a Saturday raking them up in a pile, jumping in them and doing it over again. We’d drag out the fire pit and light it up and drink hot chocolate while wearing coats and toques and gloves. Pumpkins would be carved, maybe a drawing or two would be taped on the inside of the window facing out and the costumes would be bought at least one size too big so you could wear it outside of your snow pants and jacket. The last Halloween in Alberta, we took our five year old son trick-or-treating. After twenty minutes we were all so cold we went back home to warm up and drink some hot chocolate  I remember only hitting a few blocks that night. The snow and the cold had us holing up inside and passing out candy to the older kids that came around.
 
Fast forward to our first Halloween in Arizona. Our son wore shorts with his Bob the Builder outfit. We all wore shorts. Everyone sat outside on their driveways passing out candy. Adults walked around drinking margaritas and pushing strollers. We were sweating. A house two blocks down had a keg of beer for the adults––I guess that was the ‘treat’ part, at least for us. The kids ran free, playing in the streets. We had landed on another planet, or so it seemed. It felt like heaven. I think it took a few years for me to fully thaw from the long Canadian winters but now, going on our tenth Halloween, I miss the leaves. I miss the vibrant colors and the crisp air. I even miss the costume hunting for my son. Apparently fifteen-year-olds don’t dress up, at least mine doesn’t. Even though our Halloween fun has changed, the fun of it, the candy and spending time with friends and the spirit of Halloween hasn’t changed at all.
 
So to all of you, I wish you a safe and happy Halloween! No matter how or where  you celebrate it, enjoy the fun and the creep and the scare.
 
I’d love to hear about your Halloween traditions in the comments…
 
And for those of you who might like a fun little ghost story, read on, I’ve written one just for you…just follow the screams link.