Cherry Coast Adventures: NaBloPoMo! First time as a writer, not a reader!

I can't believe it's the first of November already. Time is just flying by! That means I've been in Italy for almost seven months, married for just over that long, and out of active duty for just over a year. So many changes! This time last year we were probably recovering hangovers from too much gluehwein the night before, handing out candy in the neighborhood in Washington, and now we're little homebodies. Well, that's mostly because the car broke down this week, which is a WHOLE OTHER blog post, or two. We did make it to Del Din last night for their Trunk or Treat event, and it was a lot of fun. If we hadn't already been committed, we probably would have backed out of that because of the car troubles, but I'm really glad we ended up going.

Neither of us dressed up for Halloween yesterday, but I did put on a green shirt, gloves, and a scarf that Tony's grandma made. I also wore the fun dinosaur beanie that Aaron crocheted after recovering from breaking his arm. I hope I never break my arm, but if I ever do, I will learn how to crochet cool hats after the cast comes off. Side note: there are now 3d casts that look like cool fishnets or spiderwebs, and you can scratch your skin and bathe with them on! I was really glad for the extra warmth after the sun went, down, because it got pretty chilly.

We left around 3:30 and arrived just before 4. Most of the trunk or treat cars were already there setting up, and we walked around and got a preview. There are some REALLY creative people out there. We dropped off our chili for the competition, and then helped set-up the company's snack area. Once the sun went down and 5 o'clock came, we manned the table so the CO and his wife could go trick or treat with their little one. This ended up being awesome, because we were positioned right in front of a mini haunted house, and the guys/zombies in there did a fantastic job making noises and scaring people (not too much) all night! They kept it up really well, and we got the fun task of showing people where the entrance was. We did one more lap of the cars, and then went into a few more haunted house areas, bypassing at least one more. I tell you, everyone went all out, and I can't wait to do it again next year.

I have no idea how we did in the chili cook-off; the lady in charge said she'd notify the soldier if/when we won, so we're still standing by on those results. However, when we went back to collect our crock pot, it was completely empty! Neither of the crocks next to us were empty, so I'm taking that as a good sign. I made a traditional chili, but I also added some chipotle peppers and about a cup of a smoked wheat beer that we had around the house. It came out nice, but I was afraid to spice it up too much, which would have been my preference. I tasted one other chili, called "Helluva Lot of Jalapeno," and had I not missed the voting deadline, I probably would have voted for that one.

Anyway, that was our first Italian Halloween. I'm sad that we missed the other party, but it would have just been too much stress trying to deal with the transportation situation. I understand we missed some really great gondolier and Dodgeball costumes. Next year we will have to bring our A game!