Sandy Can't Keep Us Down

Halloween fell during a crazy week in the Northeast this year. Super Storm Sandy hit 2 days before Halloween and much of the Northeast was flood damaged and without power. It was a crazy storm to live through and Sto and I cannot stop giving thanks for how we fared. Not only did we not loose power for more than 5 minutes, we had no damage to our house or trees. This was sort of shocking since our neighbor on the left lost 2 trees and the neighbor on the right lost 3. Completely uprooted! It was quite impressive, actually. I must have woken up 5 times throughout the night, every time amazed that the power hadn't gone out yet. But morning we knew we were in the clear. After Hurricane Irene last year, we had to water proof the basement and put in a batter back up sump-pump; two things we were thankful for even though we never lost power.

Our other family members didn't fare quite as well but no one had any major damage, thankfully. Fred and Myron and a friend of Myron's came over the next day as well has Meghan, Nick, and Connor so they could all enjoy our heat and light. We made a party out of it with a big crock pot full of pork paprikash. Parts of the Jersey Shore didn't survive the storm well, though. We watched the news with jaws dropped as they showed live footage of Ate Belen's neighborhood in Beach Haven under 3 feet of water. Miraculously, all of her properties made it through without flooding in the main part of the houses! She will need to start over with landscaping but that is something we can all live with. I think the biggest loss we suffered in our little town is the massive oak in Veteran's Square. It was impressively up-rooted and will be sorely missed. I think I'm still grieving that loss.

Many neighborhoods in town were still without power on Halloween and so the town recommended postponing it until the weekend. The entire state of New Jersey postponed it by 1 full week! What?! But a little thing like a Hurricane didn't keep our neighborhood down! We discussed it and collectively decided to do Trick or Treating as usual. So, once Sto got home, we stuffed the kids into their costumes and attempted to take pictures before heading out. Once they caught on, they both had a great time. We spent most of our time trying to prevent people from putting more than one small piece of candy in their pumpkin baskets. A big thank you goes out to those parents who pass out pretzels. I'm sure the older kids skip that house but we almost doubled back! Now if I can just get Pippa to forget about all the candy in the cupboard we'll be in good shape. I loved their costumes this year, too. Super cute and warm. The 2 most important things about Halloween costumes. I know some day they will want to pick out their own costumes (and Pippa will likely want to be a princess at some point) but until then, I get to dress them up as I like. And I like my little owl and monster very much.