Happy Halloween

It's Halloween..... and I'm looking forward to all the spooks, ghosts, goblins, witches, princesses, action heros and other costumed younguns that will ding dong on my doorbell this evening as they trick or treat through the neighborhood.  Poor dears..... tonight is supposed to be rainy, it is supposed to rain all day and night.  I'm hoping they get a break and the rain ends this afternoon.

In my current neighborhood most of the trick or treaters get door to door service via golf carts driven by their parents.  And many of these golf carts have kids piled in them and hanging on the outside.... as in 6-8 kids in one golf cart!! Some parents still bring a mini-van/SUV full of youngsters and drop them off at the top of the street and wait for the trick or treaters to make the rounds and then zip them off to another street/neighborhood..... but...... the number of golf carts whizzing around the neighborhood all evening is amazing!

In my current neighborhood we get a good steady stream of 'younger' trick or treaters for about an hour..... then it slows down to a trickle of treaters for 30 more minutes..... then we get a trickle of 'big/older/teenagers' who are out being silly and looking for chocolate too.  My thinking is this..... I'm a grown adult, I gladly accept chocolate anytime it is given, by anyone who wants to give it to me, therefore...... I think as long as these older teenagers are out just having fun, not being destructive or rude, I will gladly give them some chocolate.  Like last year for instance...... I had the highschool swim team (all guys..... about 8 of them) show up wearing nothing except for their speedo's and goggles.... and yes, it was very cold last year.  They were hilarious..... freezing, but hilarious!  How could I not give such brave souls some chocolate?  I sure hope they come back this year!!!!  LOL LOL

What happened to the good ole days of walking???  OK..... so we actually ran.... no matter how many times our parents yelled at us to "be careful.... watch where you are going...... take your sister's/brother's hand...... and NO running!!!!"...... we ran anyway, forgot our little siblings and had to be first at the door to push the doorbell and scare the beegeezees out of the candy giver!  I of course was always the 'little sister'..... therefore...... it was my hand that got dropped and me who got forgotten as my brother ran over me to get to the next house first..... and it was me who ALWAYS tripped over my costume and/or a tree stump and spilled my candy all over the dark yard and bushes..... but I still managed to haul in quite a heap of candy by the end of the  night.  And didn't it seem like we were out trick or treating for hours, when it was actually not even a whole hour?!????

When I was young and when my own children were young, we made our costumes from whatever we had lying around the house.  It was the one time a year we were actually allowed to play with my Mom's makeup... and my daughters only time of the year to play with my makeup too.  We never had a costume planned more than a week in advance, usually it was last minute... as in day of Halloween.... but we always pulled something together and off we went to gather the goodies and treats.

And then...... once you got home the fun really started!  As a youngster and when my children were young, the thing to do is come in and dump your candy in a big pile and start sorting and counting!  Tongue stuck out the side of your mouth in deep concentration as you hoped to have more chocolate and  gum and less of the candy you didn't like.  And then...... came the bartering with your siblings, cousins and friends (whoever went out with you trick or treating) to exchange as much of the unwanted candy for better candy items.

I have to admit...... I was always a candy thief of my girls loot after they were fast asleep!  Then they got old enough to count how much they had of this or that and I started getting caught!  LOL  And then they got old enough to know I was going to loot their candy anyway (I'm a confessed choc-aholic), so they started giving me my own little pile from their loot!  LOL LOL  Now that we are empty nesters..... I just get whatever is leftover from giving out of the candy, and I learned quickly that you don't buy anything you don't want to get stuck with when the trick or treaters are all done.

And of course I can't forget the traditional Chili dinner.  I think this tradition started back when we lived in Smyrna TN....... my girls were 7, 3 and my youngest still in the womb and we lived in this AWESOME neighborhood where everyone felt more like family than they did neighbors or friends.  Several of us families would gather to have a quick bowl of chili, which I think started because it was the quickest and easiest meal we could get our younguns to eat in the midst of all that excitement, costume donning, makeup tweaking and typical hectic chaos that occurs before the youngsters can get us parents out the door and on the way to candy haven!  Us Moms would dress up and pass out the candy and the Dads would take the youngsters "spooking", which is what our children called trick or treating.  Then afterwards we would all gather at one of our houses as the children sorted, counted and bartered for about an hour.  So for the past 20+ years chili has been Halloween dinner.

Wishing all a Happy Halloween, and may many adorable ghosts and goblins grace your house this evening with all their eagerness of gathering yummy loot!