Halloweeeeeeen!

Halloween is one thing that Guam really gets right. In fact, it is the only holiday that I'd argue is better on Guam than back in the States. A few reasons for that. First, Halloween is typically a holiday spent with friends, so there's no inherent reminder of how far away you are and no immediate need to miss your family. Second, the temperature is guaranteed to be above 78 here, so no need to throw on sweatshirts at the last minute. You can pretty much wear whatever you want. And since most people "just moved here" you can easily wear something from a previous year that no one has ever seen before. 

And lastly, as much as we complain about how terrible the shopping is out here, I was shocked at how much Halloween costume inventory abounded around town. I was even more impressed at people's creativity to use what we have to make some awesome costumes.

Nick and I had two weekends worth of parties to go to. Last weekend's party was actually a going away party for our friends Pat and Ashley, who move off island tomorrow (sad!!). They are good friends of ours that go way back... Ashley to Coronado and Pat all the way back to Annapolis. They made our move out to Guam so easy both in getting the info we needed, setting up logistics for us ahead of time, and introducing us to new friends. It will definitely be a different Guam without them here, but I know I will see them and their kiddos again (as soon as January actually!). Knowing that definitely makes the goodbye a little less sad.

So, what are we, you ask? Nick is a geisha... and sticking to the Japanese woman theme, I am a Japanese tourist. Pat and Ashley went as Adam and Eve.

World's first man and world's most offensive looking geisha

 Okay, so my costume turned out pretty boring compared to everyone else's, 

but Ashley looks great in her homemade costume as the "other" first lady

The party was pretty boring... we all had a terrible time...

The ever amazing Lockhood band reunites

The following week Nick's command had a children's Halloween party. Nick wanted to go so he'd have a proper forum to act like a child. The kids were pretty cute in their costumes. Nick resumed his favorite costume party antics, as developed from the Pirate Party, and started stealing the best parts of other people's costumes to add to his own. Enter gorilla geisha. He then proceeded to terrorize all the adorable children, even going so far as to run in with an operating chainsaw and surprise everyone at the pinata. Lots of running and screaming after that... and crying. My apologies to any command parents whose sleep has been ruined by toddler nightmares that Nick is single-handedly responsible for.

Buzz Lightyear is not so sure what to think... 

while dad is telling him it's okay to throw a few punches

Best game of the party... chase the gorilla geisha around the room and beat him

then try to jump on him... everyone loves Uncle Nick :)

 In this case, I'd say imitation is a form of flattery. 

Stylish and creative, the Japanese are pretty fantastic at being tourists.

For our final Halloween party appearance, we switched up our costumes. Our friends Jen and Tony threw what can only be called an epic Halloween party. I'm not sure how else to describe it. They decorated their house for a solid month leading up to it, even changing out the photos in their picture frames around the house. There were walking hands, creepy two-headed babies, impressively carved pumpkins, full-sized scary clowns lurking in every room. I'm kind of mad at myself for not taking more pictures of the decor. Anyhoo, for this party, I pulled out my mom's old bell bottoms and awesome leather vest and went as an angry hippi. I would probably fit right in at Zucotti Park. Nick switched it up completely and went as a guy from his command... a red-headed team guy who had been in a parachute accident recently. The grand entrance...

The costume idea had come the week before when he and another guy decided to go as the two guys from the command who had been in parachuting accidents. Sorry Matt and Danny! Too bad for you we won't be around next year for Halloween costume payback!

 

 Rockin the bell bottoms... 

and I can't believe how many people asked where I got the vest!

Thanks Mom for keeping some of your clothes from the 70s!

The crazies were definitely out that night... 

and "scary" was defined in numerous ways.

Travis from youth group holding up his instant brown rice

All this and we still had Halloween night to go! In Paleo mode now, we decided not to hand out traditional candy (yeah, we were one of those houses). Instead we passed out packs of sugarfree gum, which most kids were actually pretty excited about. We started running out in the first hour, though. Luckily we had cleaned out the pantry the day before of all our non-Paleo food items. So we started surprising the teenagers with something "special." Nick passed out our entire stash of rice, pancake mix, mashed potatoes, banana nut bread mix, macaroni and cheese, ramen noodles, and tuna helper. I'm kind of surprised we didn't get egged later that night!

Pretty awesome Halloween this year... just realizing it was the first time since 2006 that Nick was around for us to fully enjoy it. Nice to have my favorite clown back for the holiday that he seems best suited for... yes... the most ridiculous holiday of the year!