First Halloween in Belgium

Indeed, this was the first time we celebrated Halloween in Belgium and I think that the neighbors now it.

We took the time to decorate the house, inside as well as outside...
Friday we were busy the entire day: protecting the wooden floor in the living room, hanging up decoration outside and inside, putting up lights in the trees outside, preparing snacks.... Thursday afternoon was an entire afternoon of shopping for drinks, snacks, and so on...
So yes, it took some time, but man it was worth every second!

Around 6.40 pm our first visitor arrived: a fireworker (our friend Mark)...
Good news because this meant we would be at least safe an taken care off in case of a fire! (lol)
Others followed, mainly evil characters: witches, devils and mean looking people.
Spiderella (me) was not on top of things and got a little bit scared, even Lord Dracula (Alain) had serious competition.

Of course we started with some drinks (the American self-service way) and soon after with a game to get everybody going: a broom had to be passed from one to another and as soon as the music stopped, the one having the broom had to run around the group making sounds appropriate to his/her costume.

Everybody participated, although the games were mostly intended for the kids.
We had other games organised: catching bats (paper ones hanging on a cord), finding ghosts... especially the ones with high numbers on it, making a mummy, poison tasting (kids had to be blindfolded and were tasting 8 different kinds of food: ketchup, curry sauce, mustard, salt, jam, cocktail sauce (mayo with ketchup), brown sugar, nutella (chocolate paste). We had a kid that simply gave the right answer to all 8! Amazing...

We also had, of course, a Mr and Mrs Halloween election. The kids had to decide, while the adults were dancing, who had to leave the competition.
Our winners were Tiny (a witch) and Mark (our fireworker)... Good job guys.

I think I can honestly say that everybody had a good time and we danced the night away (till 2.30 am).
Useless to say that Saturday morning we were a bit tired, but duty called: take down all the decoration outside, some already inside and most of all.... clean the house!

To all those who were there.... next Halloween RENDEZ-VOUS October 31, 2009...
For those who were not there but think they might like to be there... let us know, "the more the merrier".

Here are some pictures... some look a bit foggy, but that's because we had some "fog" in the house with a special machine we rented for the night.

The entrance of the party house

The man of the house "Dracula" with our guest Nadine
Friends of Jurgen and Tiny... they joined us for the evening with their kids
and as they were good company, they can come back next year.

Scary visitor who had enough and ended his life in our living room (lol)

Nice couple... Nadine and Kris

The man with the mask, Monty, had developed a special language. Lucky for us he decided to speak our language later in the evening. And also Amber Jade (little girl) and Emma, one of our devils.

No, they are not a couple... but it sure looked like it the way they matched their costumes.

Koen came with two of his kids and his lovely wife Veerle.

Another little devil, Axelle with Amber Jade and Lore.

From left to right: Veerle, me, Rosette, Eddie and Monty

The kids are playing the "Catch the bat" game.

Dancing...

Blondes have all the fun (lol)

Me and Tiny. Remember Tiny from last year's Halloween in Marina del Rey?

View of the kitchen...