Halloween, Oh Boy!
Now that my kids are older, the youthful excitement over Halloween has waned. And because they're older, I'm busier than ever. Whoever says toddlers are the most high maintenance, labor intensive age has obviously never had teenagers. So just taking the time to get the decorations up (and yep, they aren't yet,) buying the three tons of candy that I can't keep my hands off of, finding the old costumes in the attic and vacuuming the three inch layer of dust off of them, dealing with pleas to buy new costumes every year (like, right. I'm tempted to send them off wrapped in broiler foil. Tehy can tell everyone they're doggie bags.)It's just all so bothersome for one agonizing hour of traipsing through the neighborhood and listening to complaints like "I'm tired." "I'm getting blisters." "This is the last house." "Please, just one more house." "Hey, she got more candy than me." "I've got blisters on top of my blisters." (and those are just my gripes. There are the complaints from my kids on top of that.) Then they come home all sweaty and fill their bags with whatever candy we have left over in our house, eat their fill, and store the bags away in secret hiding places their sibs can't get to where future archeologists will find them, untouched and fossilized, presumably as treasures to take to the afterlife. Throughout the might, vanloads of kids (who've learned many crates of candy I buy each year) invade our street in herds of 20 to 30 at a time. Some are post pubertal men without costumes who, in a deep voice, utter a sheepish, "Trick o' Treat" and dip their paws into the candy bowl to remove at least a pound each. Kinda scary. Others are repeats. I mean they get their candy and then go to the end of the line formed at my door and come back for seconds. And thirds. I can't wait til it's over!