So, what happened with Halloween?

Combination Halloween/Christmas decorations!

Oh, the weather outside is frightful..........in fact, the weather outside is so frightful everything shut down Halloween day.  (If you didn't see my little update post, catch it here.)  Schools sent all the kids home, the government closed down, the hospital went to "essential services only", even the grocery store and post office closed.  Winds reached 99km/hr, and combined with blowing snow created poor visibility and impassable roads.  After JJ was sent home from the hospital (he was not on call, and his clinic was deemed "non-essential") he tried to go to the corner store to pick up some chicken noodle soup for CJS (who was home sick). After driving a few minutes down the road he turned around and drove back home again.  I tried to take pictures of the storm, but the wind kept whipping the door behind me and snow kept blowing into the mudroom. (If you haven't seen JJ get blown around by the wind while trying to hold the back door, click the link to the previous post above.  He is SO impressed.)

The best picture I could get standing in the front door.  Visibility was not
good, and the wind was whipping my hair (not the mention the front door).
I had to struggle to get the door closed again behind me.

Being a small town on a remote island in the middle of the Arctic ocean, the city of Iqaluit actually has the ability to postpone Halloween.  The message (see below) came out just before lunch time.

Life can certainly be unpredictable up here. Here are some shots of the neighbourhood I took before the storm:

Snowmobile behind the inflatable pumpkins.

Ghost dance party in the snow.

Despite the snow, it certainly feels creepy enough to be Halloween. The sun is setting earlier, and the ravens are circling.  In fact, Iqaluit is so full of ravens it feels like an Edgar Allen Poe festival year-round up here.  Buffy goes crazy trying to chase one particularly stubborn raven off the deck who has decided to make our satellite dish his winter storage spot. Nevermore!

I'm on yer powerline.........watchin' yer kids....
Plannin' to eat up yer little dogs.......

I wasn't sure if we would be able to buy pumpkins up here.  Two weeks ago, Arctic Ventures advertised a limited supply of pumpkins available for $17 each.  I bought two.  For the past two weeks I've kept them in the coldest room in the house to keep them from rotting.  If I left them outside, they would freeze solid.

Before we left Thunder Bay I made sure the kids had their Halloween costumes ready to go.  Yes, that means we had Halloween completely decided on in June.  I wasn't sure what resources there would be up here, and I was right to wonder.  There is a very small rack of costumes at each of the "department" stores, used costumes offered for sale on Facebook, and that's about it.  The school Captain Jack attends has a supply of extra costumes on hand each year for children that don't have one.


One of Coraline's favorite movies of all times is: Coraline. Its a creepy little stop-motion animated film. If you haven't seen it, you should check it out. (You can see the trailer here).  Since the movie was released in 2009, and was more popular with adults than with kids, finding a ready-to-wear costume was impossible.  I had to source everything: a used yellow raincoat, yellow rain boots (she was due for a new pair anyway), a short blue wig (this was tricky), dragonfly hair clip, and a stuffed black cat to carry around.

Captain Jack Sparrow was dead-easy (get it? Mwah ha ha ha).  He wanted to be a ninja.  One online order later and we had our ninja costume.  Of course, this year we had to get a little more creative.  With the wind chill tonight (and trust me, there is a LOT of wind), the temperature is going to be -20 degrees celsius.  This means long johns (top and bottom) for the kids, and costumes over coats.  CJS's ninja costume went on easily over his winter coat (wahoo!), and Coraline's raincoat fit over her all-season jacket and a sweater.  Both wore mittens.  A big part of Coraline's costume is rain boots, so a double layer of thick wool socks went on her feet first.

Our Coraline

Coraline
source

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, and I dress up for it every year with the kids.  This year, as you know from the post a couple of days ago,  I decided to be the "Other Mother" from the Coraline movie.  Something about those button eyes is just very cool.

November 1st dawned cold, windy, and snowy.  Because of the high winds, only a few main roads had been cleared sufficiently for traffic.  Every time the city trucks would clear a road, wind gusts would cover it again with deep snow drifts.  School was cancelled first for the morning, then for the afternoon.  The kids waited anxiously to hear if trick-or-treating would be delayed yet again.  Finally, at 3 o'clock we got the news:

We were warned to expect 200-300 treat-or-treaters Halloween night (or, "The Night After Halloween Night"). And, the entire city gets involved in this holiday. Our street was one-way only for the evening, and police and firetrucks were out in force to light up the night (it is dark here now before 5pm).

JJ took the kids treat-or-treating, I stayed home to hand out treats and terrorize children.  He took some photos, and told me there was even a firetruck parked on our street.  If you knocked on the door of the firetruck, firefighters in costumes gave you a treat.

Sending the kids out the door to bring home the
goods.

Friendly neighbourhood firefighters.

Trick or Treat! 

Watch out for those Halloween icicles!
They'll poke your eye out!

The other arctic wolf.

Our street. View of "Legoland" neighbourhood in the background.

For those of you who are email subscribers: sorry for the extra step to click the link to get to the blog.  This post is heavy on the photos, and that means if I send the whole thing via email it might not ever actually come through. Blogger is funny that way. 

Up next: Captain Jack Sparrow's birthday party at the Aquatic Centre.  A pool? Built on stilts? How? Stay tuned to find out.