Going Deutsch: A Pumpkin Baby

Halloween in its commercial sense hasn't yet infected Germany, so naturally I made it my personal goal to bring Halloween to them. I couldn't find any Halloween costumes here, and even though my mom sent me one it wasn't quite here yet, so Sandra and I bought some supplies in Gütersloh to make Mathis a pumpkin outfit. The process involved dying baby clothes Clemson orange, as well as attaching a felt leaf to a green hat. Pumpkin, done!

After a great week back here since all of my travels, we headed Sunday morning to Münster (which has won several international awards for being 'The Most Livable City') to meet friends of the family. They were super friendly and had a cute baby boy that was only a month younger than Mathis, so it was fun to watch them "play". The friends had no idea it was Halloween.

A week out I learned the word for "pumpkin" in German and went to great lengths to find one the entire 7 days. I couldn't find one, and Saturday I gave up a bought a little pumpkin so at least we'd have something. It wasn't until today, though, that Christof came home with two of the largest pumpkins I have ever seen. Real pumpkins, done!

We had to get ready for the party! Sandra was great at carving pumpkins and I set out the Halloween feast that I had made the day before. It included rice krispie treat ghosts, cupcakes of monsters, caramel apples, and those mud pudding things that don't really taste great but are cool because they have gummy worms. Julia, the sister-in-law, bought chocolate monsters and eyeballs for the party, and they looked great on the table.

I dressed Mathis up and even though he didn't like his hat, he was a good sport. Kara looked hilarious in my old dinosaur costume and totally stole the show away from Mathis. The whole family came over and we ate the desserts that are way too sweet for the Germans. Their desserts are never sweet enough for me, and I think my homemade icing put them in a sugar coma today. Ben declared he didn't like any of it and went to bang on the piano for awhile, but I think the rest of the people liked the rice krispies the best!

The night was a success and I hope that I gave them a good view of the Pagan holiday. The Grandmother made all of my effort worthwhile, when at the end of the night she rode away on her bike with one of the lit Jack-o-Lanterns tied to the back and wished us (in English) a "Happy Halloween"!