All Hallows' Eve and All Hallows' Day

Hope everyone had a good Halloween! Edith did, for which we were grateful, since between Tom's commissioning sermon this weekend, the election on Tuesday, and the baby in a few weeks, the two of us were inclined to look past Halloween straight on to November.

Edith and friend Sarah at school Friday morning

Edith's class, waiting to line up for the school Halloween parade

For the first time Tom and I attended the parade in costume, too. As a minister and his eight-months pregnant paramour, we couldn't pass on the opportunity. (You may not remember Cinderella from Hawthorne's account, but I believe she arrived on the boat from France sometime that winter.)

Reverend Dimmesdale was getting a cold--recall how his guilt wrecked his health--so E and I went out trick-or-treating on our own later that evening.

Quite pleased with her princess persona.

We went back to our old neighborhood to trick-or-treat in a place where we know lots of people (we haven't met any in our new neighborhood) and where you can count on plenty of friendly folks waiting for kids to show up. We wound up going around first with Edith's friend Emma and then her friend Sarah, and it made me very nostalgic for the old 'hood.

The girls were surprised to find one couple lowering their candy from the balcony by rope.

Last year our former downstairs neighbor was a barely-toddling, sweet spirit of fall. This year she was a two-year-old spirit of winter with some serious spunk.

Today we shifted gears from edible loot to a bounty of baby gifts, as Edith and I attended a shower arranged for us by several generous groups at our church. It was really touching that they would give us a shower the second time around. And the number of people who had thought of Edith and given her presents, too, was amazing. Here she is headed home with her loot.

Incidentally, the sticker on her shirt marks another important milestone today: Edith got her first library card. When I was growing up, our local library required you to be old enough to sign your own name to qualify for a card. The Princeton Public Library will let you have one at any age. When Mor-mor was here in September, she and Edith went to the library together only to realize that they had no way to check out their books without me or Tom there. So since Edith may be spending more time with relatives in coming weeks while Tom and I are otherwise occupied, we decided it was time for her own card. She asked for it herself at the desk and told the librarian how to spell her first name; we filled in the rest. Her first presidential vote, her first library card...Edith is rapidly acquiring all the badges of good citizenship.