Halloween is such a mixed bag for me. I have an abiding love of all things fantasy, so the whole creation of costumes is just a fantastic time for me to let my creativity go, experiment and have fun with fabric and beads and hot glue. I can sew well enough to cobble costumes together, and it's a fantastic excuse for trips to the craft store, the dollar store and the thrift shops. The build up to the night of ghosts and ghouls is just a lot of fun for me and the kids.
Then comes the day itself. Costumes are never done. There is the inevitable tussle with the boy, who has had his heart set on something like being a bird, but suddenly wants nothing to do with face makeup or hair products, even though he has hair down to his shoulders...
And the girl who insisted on doing it all herself this year, but now has a dozen last minute ideas and adjustments that need to be implemented that she had "forgotten" to mention to me. And that isn't even talking about the fact she needs some wild hair do created to match whatever kind of fey creature she is being this year, or the truly fantastical make-up she wants.
And inevitably, we are frantically back-combing and applying false lashes as Dad is dragging them bodily out the door.
All of this is going on in the midst of the hyper excitement of them anticipating the dark journey through the streets of the neighborhood in search of the Ultimate Treat. I am not sure if they've ever actually found The Ultimate Treat. I don't know if even they know what it is. But the insanity the bouncing off the walls and ceiling, the hyper activity that goes on from the moment they hop out of bed to the moment they are herded out the door is enough to make me really, really want a drink.
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| Bandit Boy |
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| Little Miss Fey Herself |
Then, sugar crash. Oh yes. The next day. it sucks if Halloween falls in the middle of the week. It would suck less if we could ship the miserable little imps off to a classroom and a teacher who can pull her hair out for a day, but no. We chose to home school. We chose the excellent option of dealing with the Day After Halloween ourselves. Go us. What a spectacular idea that was.
Good thing we have eighty pounds of chocolate melting in buckets on top of our refrigerator...
12 comments:
Halloween is my fave holiday. Actually, I look fwd to the entire month of October. It's the whole fall and uber cool atmosphere that I love.
Costumes and T or T are out of my system, tho. After raising 9 kids--with two of the 9 still at home--I am soooo over the T or T and going around the neighborhoods until I have blisters on my feet. The last two years the oldest dau and my hubs have taken the youngest T or T.
I'm chuckling as I eat my way through a bag of fun size Snickers. Why yes, in fact I have found the cure for the sugar crash...don't let the crash happen in the first place. Hint: stores WAY over-buy on the Halloween treats, so there are always fantastic clearance deals. *grin*
Yanno, my son went T or T'ing three times and didn't come home with much other than suckers, taffy, pretzels, and hard tack. Even at our church T or T it was the same stuff. Is chocolate gone up in price? LOL, I'm used to big Hershey' bars, etc. in Halloween candy.
My kids just got back, they didn't get as much as last year, but they had a ball in their new town. One place had hot dogs, juice, chips and gave out school supplies. Fire trucks were going along handing out things too. This town we moved to is awesome and amazing. It's so nice to a town come together to do things like this. Yes, my kids were truly happy this year. Now mom gets to look for bottle caps and smarties. :)
No chocolate for me.
Trinity
I love bottle caps and smarties! And wow re the fire trucks giving out things. That's cool!
Btw, your T or T up there is really early, Trin. Down here it's usually 5 to 7 PM.
We gave away chocolate. I can't say the price has gone way up per bag, but wow, are the fun size less fun or what? Like half the size of when we were kids! So, you do get less candy for the money. Even so, the kids in our neighborhood had lots of good stuff in their plastic pumpkins, from what I could see!
It was miserable cold out here, but my kids are troopers. They decided that since there would likely be fewer kids out, they'd expand their route. People were only too happy to dump mittfulls of candy into their sacs. No word of a lie, we have a full green garbage bag full of Halloween candy, mostly potato chips and chocolate. Can you say happy mama? lol!
Faith, The oldest is twelve. Hubs was ready to let them go around the block on their own this year, since they are getting older. Didn't happen, but it may be nearing the end of T&T here, too.
OMG, Val, the last thing we need is *more*!!!!
Trin, so glad you are enjoying the new town :D that is awesome!
I always get mixed up. Here, "Smarties" are candy covered chocolates, like M&M's. What you call smarties are called "Rockets" here.
LOL at Rockets! Why are they called that?
I have no idea, Faith. Because they are packaged in a long thin tube shape? Like a Rocket? They are tart candy, and yummy, though.
They even make dispensers for them. Like Pez dispensers, but round.
Bought the sweets and no one came! It just isn't as big in the UK. But I will be after I eat the sweets....
My daughter is grown now, but I still have found memories of making her costume each year.
Janice~
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