Halloween
Normally one of my favorite holidays, it was just okay this year. Halloween night itself went fine, and we scared a whole bunch more kids than usual, which was nice.
What wasn't nice were the halloween activities we tried beforehand. An amusement park when it's only in the 30s and very windy isn't nearly as much fun as when we went to Spookyworld two Halloweens earlier. There was a lot of whining, some mine, and people just didn't have that good a time to justify the cost of the Screamfest tickets. The three haunted houses were pretty good, though, despite needing to stand around in the cold forever to get in. And the rides, forget it. The sort of rides open swung people around, and we gave up after freezing on the ferris wheel, which is much slower. I think we all agreed to do something indoors next year!
And then, even worse, was Ghosts On The Bank, an event put on at the local historical tourist trap. It was advertised as being about, you know, ghosts. So, in that case we went expecting to hear some ghost stories about the Portsmouth area. And instead it was 98% safe trick or treating. I rather doubt many adults would have wanted to go knowing that, but at least it wasn't terribly expensive. Just really disappointing. There wasn't even a single ghost story!
Thanksgiving
On the other hand, I have no complaints about Thanksgiving. I don't really understand the point of this holiday and never have, but I do love turkey, so I count it as a win.
We stopped doing the big extended family get-together the year after my grandfather died my freshman year of college (he died 2 days before Thanksgiving, actually) and I don't really miss it much any more. Once Grampy died, and great-Grammy a few months later, things fell apart when it came to family gatherings. He'd been the force keeping everyone together at the holidays, ever since my grandmother died eleven years earlier, and without him... Anyway, I don't mind the smaller meal now, with just my parents and lil brother. It's kind of nice that no one has to endure a 3 hour drive, you know?
Black Friday
Colleen and I brave the Black Friday crowds every year (the one day of the year when I get up at 4 a.m.), and this one was no exception. It got off to a bit of a rough start, though, when I learned that my deicer doesn't work for crap when it comes to freezing rain. It takes a long time to scrape windows by flashlight.
It was fun, but the sales were underwhelming. The news kept saying stores were going to pull out all of the stops this year to get shoppers in, but they didn't have too much on offer that I cared about. Possibly because I've done the bulk of my christmas shopping early this year.
To be honest, the last book is by far my least favorite, so I was pleasantly surprised that they managed to make part one of The Deathly Hallows a lot more exciting than them sitting around in a tent complaining at each other. It gives me hope that the last movie, next summer, will be decent too. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, they did handle my second least favorite (Chamber of Secrets) fairly well too.
Dad and Colleen seemed to like the movie too.
And that's all I have to report about the holidays.
"Careful what you say, oh it's too late now, you've broken my heart" - Class Actress, Careful What You Say
