Halloween, Belgian-style

Kickin' it off in high fashion, thank you

Bring on the action

We made it through another Halloween! Not my favorite holiday, what with the dressing up business and sugar at every turn. Don't get me wrong, I love it for the kids. I love that they invest so much time and energy into what costume they will purchase from Target. Oh Target...I miss you. Anyway, the kids had their costumes picked out a few months ago to be well prepared for their first ever European Halloween. But back to what not to like about Halloween. Really? We purposely drown our children in sugar and give them masks and weapons and such? And most of this fun takes place in the dark? Kind of weird when you think about it, but again, they love it so it's what we do. I happen to be the kind of mom who lets them sit down with their loot the night after and eat until they are sick. Funny how those natural consequences work...nobody asked for their candy the next morning, no, they had a candy hangover. I think we all did just from looking at the mass amounts of stuff they collected this year, yikes!

Our Halloween weekend kicked off with the five of us spinning our wheels in our giant Winnebago, er, house. We are camping here as my dear friend Julie put it. Yes, we've got a ton of space but only the necessities in it for now. Brian and I struggled to organize what we have into eleven of the tiniest drawers I have ever seen. Really, the Army allows us to bring ten suitcases, plus a carry-on or two per person, and then gives you two itty-bitty dressers for all that stuff while you are in limbo? Ugh, needless to say we were ready to get out and enjoy our weekend. Thankfully I'd met a very nice girl (why do I still say girl when we are grown women? Because I still feel like I'm 25?) at the store on post a few weeks ago who must have known I was new by the lost look on my face as I browsed toasters and other 220 voltage small kitchen appliances. We got to chatting and it turns out she's a fellow California girl who went to Chico State. She took pity on me and invited us to her Halloween party, so barely knowing anyone off we went, running late in true Bender form. The boys, or Darth Vader and Storm Trooper hit the jackpot and found their peeps, many fellow Star Wars characters in attendance. Kate was one of the few girls...Minnie amongst an Alice and an Indian princess. The house is a 16th century rectory turned home, fascinating to think of how many parties it may (or more likely may not have) seen! Really great people and glad we put ourselves out there. We followed that up with Trunk or Treat on the Army airbase, our former home. It's a huge event for the Americans here. Kids line up for miles and are let into the candy collecting area, where decorated cars are parked and candy is flowing. Obscene amounts of candy. The kids had a blast though, and said their favorite part was waiting in line. Who's isn't? They linked up with their Star Wars peeps from earlier in the day and battled light sabers and laser shooters and such, all the while doing kicks and moves and sound effects that are only suited for outside. Work off that sugar boys!







Sunday night was the village "5eme Sortie Halloween". We received the flyer in the mail and were able to decipher enough to know that it sounded like fun. It's the Belgian's version of trick or treat, it appears they have taken this on due to it's wild popularity in America. Seeing it was only the 5th annual and this village is like 800 years old, it's a pretty new event in town. The kids got wind of more candy and Brian and I were too intrigued not to check it out. Thankfully our neighbors (fellow Americans who live in the converted stable on the grounds) were game as well, so off we went to "rendez vous dans le local sur la place". Meet at the Grand Place, or the big place where people meet. It's a parking lot of sorts with a public building for functions. Game on! All the children in the village that wanted to participated met up, and thanks to the very enthusiastic and organized fellows that put this together we had quite a little parade going. The point is to walk together to each door, and demand sugar. The walking part turned into racing as the kids soon figured out these people didn't buy enough candy and they quickly ran out. So off goes the mob and the parents just try to keep up, kids banging on doors shouting "bonbon!bonbon!bonbon!" (sounded a little greedy, yes). Little Kate was often at the end of the line (Minnie is not very aggressive), but don't think that didn't work in her favor. It turns out the villagers don't want to be stuck with leftover candy, so Kate was the winner of the Bender kids, one woman heaped probably twelve to fifteen handfuls of candy into her bag all the while telling us things in French and laughing. We were laughing too because we had no clue what she was saying and she wouldn't stop with the candy. Kate just kept saying "merci!, merci!"...it ended with the sweet lady taking Kate's face and giving her a huge kiss on the cheek. A great moment.
The procession continued and as we approached our digs I heard shouts of "chateau! chateau!" from the crowd, and sure enough, they stormed the gates! Our kind neighbors opened it up and let in the masses, and at that point our kids decided they'd had enough and wanted to go sit and pick through the bonbons. Or maybe they wanted to show off that they lived in the chateau, I don't know. So we ditched the Sortie Halloween and ended up at the neighbors and enjoyed some adult treats...wine, beer and would you believe homemade limoncello, with lemons our landlord carried back in his suitcase from his buddy's house in Sardinia? Craziness! We had to try it of course...that and Framboise, a drink that smells like raspberry sorbet and tastes like fire. Fun, fun, fun!

Scenes from the village...

"Bonbons!"

Storming the gates