Halloween
We had our annual orgy of candy. The kids had fun. Never let it be said that Americans are not generous. My kids came home with piles of candy. It can definitely be said that Americans are wasteful.
Our trick or treat crew started out with 5 kids and three adults. (Link’s best friend and his parents came back to town for a visit and trick or treating.) By house three, the older kids were seriously out-distancing poor Patches. I stayed behind to walk more slowly with him, while the older kids dashed from house to house. Gleek got to be one of the older kids this year, much to her delight. Patches hit about 7 houses and then declared that his hands were cold. Since temperatures were already sub-freezing, I suggested that maybe he’d like to go home and eat his candy. I deposited him with Howard at the house, and went to catch up with the others. By the time I’d chased them down, Kiki had peeled off to stay with a group of girls and trick or treat with them. Then there were three. A few houses later, Gleek began complaining of the cold. She decided that going home sounded nice. I left Link to continue on with his friend and parents. They stayed out for another 20 minutes, then arrived back in the warm. Kiki was out much longer, but had loads of fun. (This paragraph has me wanting to compose a little poem ala 5 little ducks, only with 5 little trick or treaters.)
For me Halloween is exhausting. It goes like this: Scramble to get kids fed and costumed in the morning. Drop Link at school. More costume scramble. Drop Kiki and Gleek at school. Home for awhile. Kindergarten costume parade. Home for awhile. Pick up Gleek. School-wide costume parade. Home for awhile. Pick up Link from school. Home for awhile. Pick up Kiki from school. Drive to a friend’s company for a mini halloween event. Go back home. Scramble to feed the kids something with actual protien in it. Scramble to reassemble costumes, kids, buckets, & glow-sticks for trick or treating. Accompany kids for trick or treating. Go back home. Answer the door a lot. Negotiate with each child the amount of candy they can actually keep. Make tired and sugar-hyper children go to bed. No wonder I’m exhausted by the end of it all.
The one piece that I really enjoy is being outdoors at night. I love that everywhere we go in the neighborhood, we see people we know. I get to walk in the dark, feel the cool air, and wave to my friends, who are also accompanying their children. I love this neighborhood.
Final note: Did you know that if you take glowing glow-sticks and put them into the freezer, it slows the chemical reactions enough that they stop glowing? When you pull it out, the reactions start up again. My kids have made glow-sticks last for a week (or more) by pulling them out for an hour of after-dark play, then putting them back.