The Two H's of the Fall: Homecoming and Halloween

For a baby, the fall has proven to be the most interesting time that there is.  Everywhere he looks, there are colors to see, sounds to hear, and crazy people to talk to.  Or perhaps the crazy people were just the members of our dance group.  Every morning, we take a walk around the neighborhood, and Jamey stares up at the trees and their many colors.  Where once was green, is now thousands of shades of orange, yellow, red, and brown.  

On top of that, fall is the time for Homecoming, whether it be in the high schools or at UVA.  Being in a county with 26 high schools, and with both of us teaching at one, Homecoming parades abound in the month of October.  And so, within three weeks, we enjoyed not one, not two, but three parades: Westfield, Centreville, and of course our local high school of Herndon.  

I must say, that the Herndon parade was by far the most impressive.  This wasn't just a parade for the high school.  It was a parade for the community, as throngs of kids marched through the main street in Old Town Herndon.  The Girl Scouts were there, the Boy Scouts were there.  Even the politicians showed up to shake hands and kiss babies.  And of course, every school in the area designed their own float, from the wee ones at the elementary school to the flat bed truck that carried the seniors from Herndon High.  What we expected to be a 20 minute stop on our way to the grocery store, turned into an hour of watching and listening.  All of which wore Jamey out, as he fell asleep in Glenn's arms.  The parade only reiterated to me how happy I am that we were able to find a place in this area.  Living in the Town of Herndon, there really is a sense of community and not just a huge amount of townhouses grouped together.

Jamey also got to experience Homecoming at UVA, as we went for a visit to show the Austrian teacher we are hosting what an American university looks like.  Although we couldn't get tickets to the football game, we say tons of people of all ages who once went to UVA.  On the way out of town, we stopped by the apple orchard that overlooks the city, and tried to make Jamey blend in with the pumpkins in the pumpkin patch.  Much to Glenn's chagrine, the Great Pumpkin didn't appear.  ;)

And of course, the season is capped off by the sweetest "H" of them all-- Halloween.  Although Jamey isn't quite old enough to understand what is going on, or why all this weird looking people are at the door, we had to dress him up.  Inspired by Jamey's Trogdor Dragon onesie, we decided that would be his costume.  At first we thought of putting it together ourselves, but in a recent trip to Target, we took the easy way out this year and bought him a costume.  That was a month ago, and we were relieved to see that the costume still fit him on Friday night.  

Dressed and ready to go, we marched up and down our street, visiting the few families that we know.  We also drove the five minute drive over to Katie's house to check out her costume.  She seemed to understand much better what was going on.  As we stood and talked to Jess, Jamey became cranky, and within seconds of me holding him in my arms, his head turned to deadweight on my shoulder.  And that was it for our trick-or-treating.  It was just past Jamey's bedtime.

Upon arriving home, I laid him on the couch while I ate some pizza, and when he woke up, I let his grabby fingers get ahold of the pumpkin that held his pile of candy, and watched him as he peered inside at the colors of the candy packages.  Sadly, we ran out of candy, and had to use Jamey's 

candy to give out to the kids who came around, so 

there will be no enjoyment of candy for him this year.  That's okay-- I will sacrifice and buy some candy to eat when we go out today.  That way, he will still get his dose of sweets!