Halloween Aftermath

Halloween was crazy. Yes, Trick or Treating started at 3pm...para may time ang kids to do the 7 streets, and still have time leftover to go to the Clubhouse for the ultimate tunnel of horror and the games and dinner. It was easily the biggest attended Trick or Treating event in all Kalsangi history.What began as something just for the neighborhood (of Kalsangi) kids has expanded to all the kids of Dole Philippines School plus kids of upper and lower management of Dolefil. Of course not everyone in the school attends, nor do we have all the kids of management coming up---but still...daghan pa gihapon by our standards ang gasaka. Add to that alumni of DPS, like sina Mikko's classmates, etc...plus some folks who bring along nephews and nieces pa...

Almost all of us prepared bags or goodies good for almost 300 kids, and we all ended up broke (in candy/treats). Did i tell you in the whole South Cotabato (or whole mindanao even? who knows?), kami lang ang ga-Trick or Treat. Of course, the posh villages in Manila and probably Cebu have their own thing too...but i don't think they're crazy enough to have street /house contests where everyone comes out to pitch in to make the whole event a success. We had two streets here who had ghouls and white ladies and the like walking up and down their street as part of the 'decor'...some homes naman converted their garages into mini-houses of horror...One street, with The Forbidden Forest as a theme, not only had live creatures like the kapre, witches, etc patrolling their street, they had two live unicorns!! Can you beat that? of course, they were in reality two tame horses with cartolina horns attached to their foreheads...but really! that blew me away!

Our street was more sedate (we also happen to be on a street with less househelp than the rest na we can dress up as witches and ask to walk up and down the street). We opted to have a Pirate theme...with only the shipwreck and beach on the street corners as the highlight. And since we didn't have the necessary manpower to walk up and down our streets as well, we only had black skull and cross-bones flags lining our street as added decor.Trina and Pops' daughters were dressed as girl pirates and they just kinda hung around the street entrance as unofficial props... But because it was tastefully done (ahem!), we still placed 3rd. The street with the unicorns placed 2nd, while the one with the most witches and ghosts walking around placed first.Prizes were in cash, but to be used towards a street party, so okay na rin. Of course, there are the 'walang kamatayan', ever-present prizes, cases of Dole fruitcups as additional reward.

What did DJ wear for Halloween? I can just imagine him so cute in whatever it was he was wearing and then dropping like a fly 5 minutes into his car ride with his grama! My kids for many years would go trick or treating with these pumpkin buckets---that ended up way too small for all the 'loot' they amassed, and they would have to come home midway and 'unload' their buckets to make room for their '2nd half' of the bounty.

The morning after Halloween, i joined Momon on the rug and had him spread out his candy and sort them. What he didn't like, Mikko and I went through, and what was left over was given to his yaya (still a whole bag's worth). Mikko took pains to make himself look like 'V' (for Vendetta), but got his kicks not from trick or treating, but from walking up and down all the streets in his costume and getting people to guess who he was! Trina didn't go trick or treating, either, but dressed like a lady pirate of sorts, and was content to hand out the candy, until her friends, Pops' doters came to pick her up, and they hung around the street a bit, before checking out the other streets, without going for the treats. They all took pictures for us.

Me? after spending a long morning with Pops and our coterie of houseboys and kids working on the shipwreck which we finished at lunchtime, i barely had enough time to trim our driveway and yard (no theme in particular--anything Halloweeny, as i wasn't an aspirant for best Halloweeny house or anything)organize the candy into baskets ready for distribution, and then Trina asked me to bake little chocolate cupcakes pa gyud as additional treats! I had just finished that when girlfriend Lisa Gustafson came a knockin', mainly to hang out after dropping off her kids with their friends...so i took her on a walking tour of all the streets and most of the homes (we didn't enter the mini-houses of horror na, haha). So kapuy na gyud by the time we got to the Club party at 6 o'clock uyyy!!! Rene picked up Craig, Lisa's hubby on his way from work, around 6:30pm na. Had a good Halloweeny dinner (black spaghetti, chicken fingers, etc...topped by cake with ghosties and gravestones on top!).

I was truly all pooped out by the time we hit the sack at around 10:30....tired but happy.