Strange as you are to me...: A Very Harry Halloween

I must say that even with all the self-imposed pressure to come up with a good costume for Halloween, it really is one of my favorite holidays. Probably because I just really enjoy seeing how creative other people are. This year, Halloween started on Friday afternoon/early evening with a joint happy hour between the Archives and the Canadian Embassy. Those Canadians sure know how to have a good time. I went as a Rockford Peach from A League of their Own (which surprisingly was a big hit with some people - I get it, it too is one of my favorite movies).

The winners of the costume contest were my fellow teammates, Hilary, Maureen, and Rania who went as the National Archives Curling Team (very Canadian - very creative). They made their own logo and curling stone and it was just really cool. My other teammate Corinne and I screamed our bloody heads off for them during the contest because we wanted them to win so badly. Luckily they did...otherwise losing my voice would've been for nothing.

Best part of their outfit was the Swiffers.

Saturday morning, I went and got a massage from my trusty pal Andre at Massage Envy (love how they make massages affordable - it's $49 well spent). Sidenote: ever since I started getting a massage every month or so, my chronic tension headaches have almost entirely subsided and i have severely cut down on the amount of excedrin and advil i take a day.

Saturday night, we headed off to Grand Central in Adam's Morgan to crash the kickball party's open bar with Mary and company. Mark wanted to put his bald head to good use and dressed up as Voldemort from Harry Potter... so I jumped on the opportunity to bring out my inner nerd and decided to be Hermione and subsequently insisted Jerry dress as Draco Malfoy (he's all wrong for Harry Potter... that blonde hair screams Malfoy). I decided to just go full geek with this. And we did - complete with ties, scarves, and even wands.

Mary and Katie had a terrific idea and went as a Double Dare team with two of their friends. It was such a great costume and drinking beer out of the cups on top of their heads was a big hit (even though Mary's cup had a hole so when they poured beer in her cup, it went down her head).

Below is a sampling of some of the other costumes we saw... all in all, it was a terrific time. After having a lackluster Halloween last year, this one was super fun and reminded me what I loved about it.

Sunday, Mary and Randi came over and we had a girls fall fun day complete with scary movies, chili, pumpkin-related snacks, and Halloween candy. We watched the original, "Halloween," which I admit was not as scary as I had remembered but still pretty creepy.

Such a fun and lovely weekend...