The Halloween that Wasn't

I want a Halloween do-over. How I wished I had sweet, adorable photos of share of my little girl and boy enjoying Halloween 2008. Instead of spending Friday night trick-or-treating with my Minnie and monkey, we spent Halloween evening surrounded by doctors and nurses. Unfortunately, those fine people weren't in costumes as my mom landed herself in the ICU late Thursday and has yet to be sprung free.

So Friday morning, we raced around preparing for an unexpected road trip. We decided to leave the kiddos in the paternal grandparents' capable hands rather than dragging them with us. We dropped them off at daycare, so they could enjoy trick-or-treating in the federal building and their Halloween party. As usually, we were running way late, and Ella's class had already started t-or-t by time we arrived, so I pulled the costume over her head and ran her up to the 14th floor. As E & I are riding on the elevator, I realized in the chaos that Mike didn't get the chance to say goodbye to his little girl. I found her classmates and teachers, kissed her goodbye and made the trek back to the center. Mike had Sam dressed by the time I entered his room. I snatched him up and snuggled him for a very brief moment before it was his turn to pose for the camera. We waved goodbye to him and decided to track E down, so Mike could give his girl the proper goodbye. We found them filling their bags on the 15th floor. Ella gave both mom and dad big bear hugs. Content with our goodbyes, we called for the elevator, stepped in and turned around to see E run in front of the door. With a big smile on her face, she waved goodbye and blew us sweet kisses. The door slowly closed and the emotion as well as the elevator sunk. Mike and I turned to each other to see tears welling in the other. My sweet baby girl had never looked cuter. I so was not prepared for that type of emotional goodbye.

After a quick, speedy drive and a long afternoon in the hospital, Mike and I found ourselves alone on Friday evening. In our search for a kid-free restaurant (just too tough to be around lil ghosts and goblins), an unexpected detour took us smack through a neighborhood packed with kids. It was like we jumped in the rabbit hole. We frantically searched for the exit. As we drove in circles (it seemed), the pit in my stomach and the lump in my throat just grew. Maybe I was being a too melodramatic, but it was Halloween (our family LOVES the holiday and it was Sammy's first one, so emotions were running high).

We finally made it to our destination and buried ourselves in the bar. After a few beers and games of trivia, we managed to turn our frowns upside down. In all, it wasn't the night we wanted, but we managed to salvage it and create some good memories. We heard our kids also had quite the evening with grandma. While it didn't go according to our plan, it will go down in the books as the way we celebrated Halloween 2008.