We were told not to expect too much for Halloween. It is a very American holiday. We were excited to see what would come of it here. The weekend before the big day, we ate at our favorite Italian restaurant and they had a special menu that really went for the ghoulish gusto. And we knew that there would be trick-or-treating in Palm Meadows. But we didn't know how many people would actually be participating. As the date approached, we were anxiously working out the details of the delivery of our sea freight. We had bid farewell to most of our worldly possessions in the middle of August. And now, at the end of October, we were beyond excited to be reunited. The children were especially so as all our Halloween boxes were in the sea freight and they had a mufti day (non-uniform) where they would be able to wear costumes.
Cori snapped this photo at the shipping yard. There is a one week process to get the container off the boat and then inspected by customs. Despite our best efforts to hurry things along, the delivery of our goods began the afternoon of the kid's mufti day. So we had to get creative with what clothes and supplies we could find. Grace made a cute strawberry. Grant pulled off a gangly neon skeleton. And Eden wanted to be Elsa (with a braid and straight hair). So we repurposed the Brave dress we had in the toy bin and did what we could with her perfectly hued hair.
We had some time once the big kids were off to school to prepare for the rest of the day. All of the rental furniture was scheduled to be dismantled and removed starting around noon, and the delivery would begin around 3. Selvi and I worked around the house stripping beds and cleaning out desks and drawers. I also had a couple of bags to prepare as we were going to be staying at the hotel at the clubhouse for two or three nights while the house got settled.
The rental furniture guys showed up over an hour late -- after I had made a dozen phone calls -- and the delivery showed up a half an hour early. So the rental furniture was moved to the driveway for dismantling. Once we had signed all the paperwork for that and the house was cleared, we were finally able to give the okay to start unloading the trucks. Jeffery was wandering in and out of the house all afternoon while I was signing papers and directing traffic. The moving guys were so so good with him. They let him watch Tom & Jerry on their phones, they made sure he didn't go into the street, they chased him down the sidewalk, and they kept him to the side when big loads were on the move. We stood with the manager at the front door and as each package came through we crossed it off on the master list and told them where to put it. We did this over the course of a couple days which were followed by a day for assembly and waste removal. We had bought a bunk bed in the States for the boys' room which was still completely unassembled and in its original boxes. They hired someone to spend a day assembling it for us. Cori and I each cried a tear of joy!
Four truck load's worth of paper-wrapped goods makes for A LOT of paper. At one point, I found the kids literally diving into a pile of paper off the back porch while the moving guys cheered them on. I put a hasty kabosh on this little activity, but Eden begged for one more jump. I reluctantly agreed and she proceeded to do a front flip from the patio chair. She and Jeffery do not get their fearlessness from me. I totally blame Cori!
Overall, our stuff made it through in good shape. We had an old cabinet that got crushed and needed to be thrown out. There were a few broken glass things. And when one of our TVs was uncrated, they "found" large scratches down the screen. I am 90% certain that the movers raked it with their box cutters. They were insistent that there was an offending staple in the crate that caused the damage. Fortunately, we get reimbursed for these kinds of things and it wasn't a big deal.
Unfortunately, our Halloween boxes (and preplanned costumes) were nowhere to be found. I explained before how we had to divide our things into several groups for the move here. We had debated between putting the Halloween stuff into the air shipment pile and putting in into the sea freight. We knew we'd be cutting it close on the calendar for Halloween but I thought we had ultimately decided to put it into the sea freight (space was tight on the air shipment). It also doesn't help that we put half the Halloween stuff into storage. After several years of trunk-or-treats we have more than a few boxes of Halloween fun. I'm thinking (hoping) that there was a mix up in the garage that packing day and that all the Halloween stuff is waiting happily together in storage. I guess we'll find out in a couple of years! (And I'll be trying to stock up on Halloween stuff while we are state-side this summer!)
The kids were good sports. They dug around in the dress up box and got ready for trick-or-treating. Our dear friends here, the Jacksons, invited us over for a chili dinner before hitting the neighborhood. Dinner was delish and the rest of the night was surprisingly festive. Over 1/3 of the houses we wandered through had some decoration up and were participating that night. The streets were alive with families and friends.
Eden fell in the street and wailed loudly enough to draw a good crowd. Cori elbowed his way though to take this photo... She was totally fine, by the way.
