Sunday, November 2, 2008

Halloween Letdown -- or Not?

I'm afraid Halloween was a bit of a bust this year due to my sinus infection, Mia's virus, and Will's headache. (Geez, we sound like a bunch of delicatos, don't we?) Our favorite holiday passed by without frosted pumpkin cookies or cupcakes, our "scary dinner", the spider web strung around the house, and the black curtains I usually hang on the front porch. I felt a little bad, but I had to go with the good old "there's always next year" approach.

We did manage to set up our Halloween village, carve pumpkins, and rally for the "hayride" in our pickup truck with friends. (My friend Daria has some good pics of our trick-or-treating crew on her blog: http://www.dariabishop.com/dariasday.htm). Will was a skeleton guy, Mia a wizard, and Max a clone trooper.

After a week of lying on the couch, Mia tried to mobilize for trick-or-treating, but she made it to only three houses. Will went home with a headache after about seven houses. (I fed him a hamburger, and he instantly recovered. Wish I would've done that before he went out...) Max finished off the night with the rest of the kids, running a mile a minute up and down the long driveways in our neighborhood. At the last house, he finally told Tom he was ready to go home. In bed by 8:00; probably sleeping by 8:03.

After the festivities, the kids immediately filled up bowls with candy they didn't want and put them on the porch for the Great Pumpkin. We discovered about four years ago that if you do this, the Great Pumpkin exchanges your candy with a gift. I only know of one other family that does this, and it's interesting that the kids (Will and Max) haven't realized that this isn't a global tradition. Or even a local one. I would think that if this only happens at your house, you might catch on...

On the other hand, if you catch on, maybe you don't get that gift anymore!

So despite the lack of our typical Halloween celebrations and our fragile states of health, the day came and went, and everyone was still happy. I started collecting all the Halloween decorations today to make room for the turkeys that Max has started making. We already have four hand turkeys, a toilet paper roll turkey, and a turkey that he colored and glued together yesterday. I haven't pulled out the paper plate turkey idea yet...maybe next weekend.

(414 words)

No comments:

Post a Comment