Thompson's Not So Weird!

Well, Happy November!

There are 54 shopping days until Christmas. You may officially begin to panic.

Our first Thompson Halloween went well, in spite of the cold. I think the temperature was around -8C (17.6F), so retrofitting the costumes was mandatory. We had to abandon the Shrek outfit for Sontoo, as we simply could not get enough insulation into the equation.

A quick hunt the in basement turned up half a skunk costume, a cow costume and a monkey costume that Sonwun wore last year. We went with the monkey, as it fit over Sontoo's snowsuit and came equipped with a nice warm hat/head. Personally, I went with the top half of the kids' cow costume, just 'cause I thought it was funny.

Sontoo, the Monkey

Sonwun, the fearless Knight

As for Sonwun, we swapped out the Knight pants with snow pants, the Knight's boots with snow boots, and packed on about four sweaters beneath his tunic. The chain mail helmet sufficed for headwear.

Neomom loaded the kids up and headed out while I stayed back to hand out the loot. I was joined about 15 minutes later, when Sontoo decided he'd had enough of the whole "looking cute" thing and returned to the warmth of the house.

Sonwun, on the other hand, would have gone all night. He's at the age where he's figured out this whole Halloween thing mathematically (T+CC=L). Time plus cute costume equals loot. And he was more than willing to put in the time.

After an hour or so on the streets, Neomom and the Knight headed over to a friend's house about 5 minutes from here, where Sonwun was given what he called a virgin "jello firer." And, when they got home, Daddy received three non-virgin jello shooters. Thanks Shari and Ty!

Visitors to the front door here in Thompson were pretty much the same as anywhere else, with one notable exception. There were plenty of cute kids out early, all dressed up and under the watchful eye of mom or dad. They loved my cow costume. As the evening wore on, the teens, wearing little or no costumes whatsoever, made an appearance to collect their loot. They kinda sneered at the cow.

And finally, the notable exception. Just when we thought the night was over, we turned off the porch light. And then we got the knock on the door and opened it to find two full-grown adults, dressed as homeless alcoholics, (convincing costumes, complete with cooking sherry cologne) carrying four full shopping bags of candy each.

I gave them each a handful of candy and, at their request, supplied them with a few more grocery bags and sent them on their way. Next year, I will prepare a couple of big ol' nutritious sandwiches to supplement their Halloween diet, and keep them handy, just in case. I only hope they found a warm place to curl up last night and enjoy the loot.

So that, in a nutshell, was our first Thompson Halloween experience. Honestly, it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. There were no local mishaps on Devil's Night, or Gate Night. And on Halloween, we dressed for the cold, our visitors were, for the most part, polite and well-behaved. Now all that's left is a week or two of sugar-fuelled mayhem in the house.

16 Days to Go

Well, 16 more shopping days until Halloween.

And 15 more days to buy tactical weapons before Devil's Night, or Gate Night, or whatever they call it here.

This will be our first Halloween in Thompson and our first one in a long time living in a "city." This particular event has been pretty quiet on the home front for the past eight years or so. Living out in the country, we didn't get many visitors in Gimli, so it was easy enough to pack up the kids, together, and head to town for trick-or-treating.

To do that here, I suspect, would be to invite an omelette of biblical proportions to the front of our home. So I guess one of us will have to stay behind to appease egg-wielding hoard.

But what about costumes? We've talked to Sonwun about it already and his first choice was a ghost. But then that changed to a police officer, and then to a ghost-police officer.

So what are the top costume suggestions for kids this year? Sadly, nothing all that creative. After browsing around the 'net for "top costumes 2009," and, looking specifically at boys' costumes I found most of the usual stuff: Spiderman, Transformers, Peter Pan, Batman, Robin, Vampire, Wolverine, Star Wars characters, Harry Potter . . . the usual. There were a few I didn't recognize, such as "Naruto, and Naruto Kakashi," "Troy" from High School Musical and "Ash Ketchum," whoever that is.

This year, Sonwun is actually very much into picking his own costume. And as I've been sitting here doing my research, he climbed onto my lap and made his choice. He would now like to be the Transformer Bumblebee, as he believes "everyone will think I'm cool."

Sontoo is a little easier to work with, as he is still at an age where he can't voice his protest over whatever we choose. If mommy's choosing, she'll look for something that makes him look adorable. If daddy gets his way, he'll look as goofy as possible. I've already got my eye on a giant peanut costume, but he may very well end up wearing the hand-me-down skunk costume his brother wore two years ago.

But as I do some further browsing through the toddler section, I see a Kung Foo Panda outfit that has me in tears and a "Lil' Disco Toddler" costume that comes compete with a '70s 'fro and a nice light blue disco suit. I think I wore that suit to Grade 8 graduation, minus the 'fro.

Last year Sonwun was a ghost (his choice) and Sontoo wore a Santa costume. We figured on getting double usage out of it as he could look adorable on both Halloween and at Christmas. He seemed okay with it.

Anyway, as I said, just over two weeks to prepare. Must talk to the neighbours, see how much junk to buy, whether to buy candy or those mini booze bottles for the trick-or-treaters. And, being the civic-minded guy that I am, I need to find out whether I'm expected to join the armed street patrol that night, or just sit in the machine gun nest on my roof and cover the ground troops. It is, after all, our first Halloween in Thompson and I want to be a good neighbour.

Oh, and did I mention that someone broke into our van a few nights ago. They didn't steal anything, just kind of rifled through the glove compartment and left the stench of alcohol breath for us in the morning. Didn't find any cigarettes or booze, so they just moved on. I'm told by the neighbours that we were not alone that night. Apparently one of the local addicts went through a number of vehicles and even tried to open a few doors on the houses.

Van was unlocked, house was locked. Lesson learned.