I think I officially had enough Halloween this year. Between Christopher's school carnival, Cate's school carnival, and Halloween night itself, I'm "Halloweened Out." The kids certainly enjoyed themselves, even though we strangely had no normal trick or treating.

On Halloween night, Christopher was invited to join the neighbor boy (his new best friend Josh) to go to his school/church carnival. He joined them. He was also invited with another friend from school to go to the Halloween festivities with the Symphony at the Performing Arts Center (which he unfortunately couldn't do since he had other commitments). That was big -- the symphony affair is fairly expensive, but the boys' dad plays in the horn section of the symphony and had extra tickets. It's strange that my 2nd grader is getting to the point of having the busiest social calendar of the entire family.

Cate and I joined some of Greg's family to head to the Zoo Boo. We'd never tried the Zoo Boo before -- it's an ingenious marketing scheme where they open up the zoo at night and you trick or treat at various spots through the zoo while watching the animals at night. And charge admission fees. We found out when we got there that our annual pass had expired, so we ended up renewing, even though we might not have done so otherwise. They spice up the evening with a giant bonfire and a station of hot cocoa and hot cider. Those things were needed -- man, was it a cold night. Cate enjoyed it, but was done by the time we got to the tigers -- her little hands were frozen despite her mittens. And she wasn't thrilled with having to cover up her Ariel dress with the proper gear, but what are you going to do?

Coolest part of the night was that with the cold and clear skies and the dark zoo the stars were out in spectacular fashion. It was fun to share my love of astronomy with her for a few minutes as I pointed out a few constellations, the North Star, and how ancient peoples would use the north star to not get lost. She's talked about that conversation several times this weekend -- it made an impression and it's so fun to see my kids begin to enjoy my hobbies.

So now that Halloween is over, is it too early to put up Christmas decorations? Seriously -- they may be up within the week. It's snowing heavily today and looking Christmas-y.

P.S. Had fun visiting with my college friend Liz who is in Anchorage for work for one day (she works with Boeing helping to decide where to spend their corporate citizenship dollars). We got to have her over to the house last night and we stayed up way too late jabbering. It was so fun to introduce her to my kids -- all the girlie weekends are husband/kid-free events so even though we get to see each other at least once a year, she had never met my kids. They were ready to adopt her as their long lost Aunt.

P.P.S. Poor Cate went to the doctor this a.m. We're finally fighting back against her month-long snotty nose. It would come and go, but seem to be coming more than going these days. After watching it run all night long on our cold Halloween night this weekend I vowed to finally get her some pink medicine. I hope she'll be on the mend now.