We are home, showered and in bed. At 9:30 on Halloween. AND we had a 20 minute walk home and got home over an hour ago. Halloween in London was long and intense, but it started early and ended early - and that I like.
In Newton our whole neighborhood goes to Oxford Rd, and it's now known around Newton as a great place to trick or treat. It starts around 6:30, and we saw ALL of the kids (and my!) friends there. Some houses went all out. Nearly every single one gives candy and has a fun attitude about it.
Plus, Matt is Mr Halloween. He has all of these (ridiculous) decorations that he puts up at our house, and even though we are never home to give candy, our house is super Halloweeny for a great deal of October.
For a bunch of years - including last year in our back yard - we hosted pizza before trick or treating, and it's just so fun. We love Halloween in Newton.
Multiple people here said Halloween is INSANE in St John's Wood and a few other parts of London. They said the houses go all out and you get so much candy - like way more than in the States. We had very high expectations. And in the end. Eh.
Sam was the lion from Wizard of Oz in a group of girls who were other Ozzians and went to Dorothy's house after school. They generously fed them all and took them out around 5. I met up with them part way through the night.
I picked the boys up at 4 from school, and we used the bathroom, ate, left everything we could at school and headed out from there. We met Matt on the way and headed to Hamilton Terrace, which is a street that I believe is between St John's Wood and Maida Vale. It has really big houses, nearly all with gates. A few of the houses indeed went all out. They must get thousands of trick or treaters - it was like a candy factory. But it was probably only about a third of the houses. We walked from there on Carlton Hill and Clifton Hill towards (THE) Abbey Rd, and that was pretty spectacular. FILLED with kids, most houses participated, people set up tables at their gates and huge queues for candy.
Unfortunately it started POURING for about an hour, but it barely slowed down the kids. Around 5:30 it changed to the over 7 crowd and by 6:30 the kids were DONE. I was with Sam and friends, and they wanted to go back and trade candy. Dorothy's family (again, super generously) had the Ozzians and the moms for a drink while the kids traded and then hid and went seeking and again, out by 7:55 or so and home by 8:15. Magic.
The boys had a good time, went to loads of houses and even a lot between SJW and our house in Lower Belsize Park, but also wanted to go home and were home in the 6's. Elie got a lot of compliments on his costume (Elie and I made it. 80% me, but truly a partnership in some ways). Koby was jealous but also looked wonderful as some scary bad character from something I don't know.
They ended up with way less candy than they usually get in Newton. They were slightly underwhelmed, but we agreed that 1) Oxford is just awesome, and we're so lucky. 2) we had really high expectations. 3) rain definitely didn't help the situation.
In other news...things are starting to get fixed (though there was still a puddle under the dryer today AND the shower still drips, but less frequently). We lost internet for a full day (I didn't expect that here - maybe a few hours, but a DAY??). We have hosted a few meals, and it's so nice to be able to do that again (Covid and we have space). We saw Dan Hoenig and Ozsel and their son Dylan, friends of Matt's from Michigan, but Dan was also friends with Kenny - super super nice when we hang with them. We also had Shana's sister, Mara and her husband Ben and baby Sadie for dinner and that was lovely. AND we had Jessica, Rich and fam over for brunch on Sunday, and that too was just so lovely. Our kids all really love each other, and it's just always so nice. We also had shabbat dinner with a new friend who is friends with Tova, a good friend from Newton, so that was a nice connection, and we have kids the same age and go to shul together.
Otherwise, life as normal. Though we're definitely leaving whatever honeymoon phase we had and entering into a small valley of despair. Though today on the way to trick or treat, Elie was explaining to me that when he told friends he was moving, everyone felt really bad for him and told him it's really hard. He said it's really not that hard. He said he's still working on the friends thing (playdate on Friday - we are working on this), but otherwise he hasn't had a hard time moving and he's doing pretty well. Considering he was the one who was struggling the most, that's good.
And in other news on the other side of the ocean...just when I was about to say "My parents made the whole trip and didn't get covid!!!" They got covid. First my dad. Now my mom too. Pretty sure he got it on the way home, though he actually wore a mask for the great majority of the journey. We wish them a speedy recovery. So far pretty normal symptoms and experiences. Let's hope it stays that way.
As usual - random photos in random order.
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