Happy Halloween!

Who's having a good Halloween?

Witches. Pumpkins. Pint-sized Spidermen and Meridas running around the playground. What could it be but Halloween, everybody’s favorite holiday?

Independence Day has fireworks and Thanksgiving has that delicious turkey, but no holiday offers as much fun as Halloween. That’s because, more than any other, it is a holiday for the imagination. The vivid colors of Halloween- orange, black and green- are perfect for crafts and hand made decorations. The iconic images of the holiday are fun to play with, too. When else do you have the chance to wear a ghost, a cat and a jack-o-lantern on a bracelet, or have a stern but cute owl overlook your dining room?

Kids get into the spirit, decorating pumpkins and making masks and costumes for parties and trick-or-treating, while those of us a little too old for the door to door routine can have fun with scary movies new and vintage.

It’s the day when we can have fun with the things that scare us. Most of us would be unhappy to find a giant spider web in our front yard, but when we’re the ones putting it there, it’s a different story. Halloween lets us play with the monsters knowing that the worst that awaits us is a tummy ache and some TP in the trees.

Getting crafty with pumpkins at Disneyland.

For us, this Halloween season has been a little bittersweet. We got our Disneyland annual passes just in time to enjoy the park’s (slightly) spooky transformation, and we’ve had a good time watching the talented pumpkin carvers at the Big Thunder Ranch Jamboree and posing with the giant Mickey-o-lantern on Main Street. Susan rode through the Ghost Galaxy on Space Mountain, and we were both enchanted by the way Jack Skellington took over the Haunted Mansion. Despite all the fun we’ve had, we know that we’ll enjoy it so much more as parents.

Happy Halloween from Disneyland!

Finally, Halloween marks the end of the mild part of the year. The clocks change right around Halloween, and the cheery and colorful part of fall gives way to shorter days, colder nights, and a drawing inward. Winter is right around the corner.

Jack's got the holiday spirit.

An ending is also a beginning. As we head toward Thanksgiving and Christmas, we are reminded of the good times we had in 2012, and look forward to the new adventures, new experiences and maybe a new member of the family in the months to come.