A couple of costumes from Halloweens past.

As a reminder, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. It’s also not that big in Germany.

All day today, I played the usual game I play on Halloween: costume or real outfit?

I learned this game works even better in Germany than it does in the US. Mainly because the answer is outfit 100% of the time.

The Germans do have other traditions, though, to celebrate the spooks.

Apparently German kids carve monsters, Rübengeister, out of root vegetables, to scare away ghosts.

With all the sweet potatoes, parsnips, carrots, beets I’ve been eating the past month, this is definitely a tradition I support.

Austrians leave a night on all night, and some bread and water outside for spirits. Seems pretty tame to me.

The week was still pretty spooky for me, though.

I actually met someone from Transylvania.

I went to the foot doctor and she didn’t speak English. I left thinking I have arthritis (I am only 70% sure now that I don’t have arthritis).

The sun only peeked out once or twice, adding extra spookiness to the spooky week.

My neighbor had her baby on the night of the full moon. Spooky.

So, even though it is a bit depressing not celebrating Halloween to the fullest, I’m gonna put on Monster Mash and Thriller, carve some sweet potatoes and make it a spooky night.