Trick or Treat?

The following is a copy of the email that I sent to my mom tonight regarding our Halloween. So much for confidential family correspondence...!

Mom,

We had a nice time tonight, and in the end, there wasn't much to it. Not many trick or treaters this year - I bought 3 huge bags of candy at Costco and told everyone "only one candy per customer" because I think we came close running out last year. But this year we MAYBE went through one bag, and that was after we started giving out two per person.

One unfortunate incident (I can't help but revel in misfortune - it's the glass-is-half-empty side of me) was that our neighbor's son, Mitchell, was "held up" at knife point in the green belt behind our house and was forced to surrender his stash of candy. That would explain the police car in our culdesac. Too too bad.

Evan had a fabulous time, but we only let him do the culdesac. He was NOT pleased to be forced to come back in the house. (The duck costume was a last-second loan from Lucy who had made it for Hayden) He had just figured out that rather than entering each person's house and having a visit, he was going to receive treats and move on. However, once back inside our cozy home, with cheeks filled with KitKats, he discovered the joy of answering the door. By that time he was wearing the giraffe costume. He made an especial point of waving "bye bye" to each person as he or she left. There was good ju-ju in our house this night of ghosts and ghouls.

Ellie and Sabrina only lasted an hour. But their pumpkins were half-full (or half-empty, depending on how you look at it). I put Ellie right to bed (a more tired girl, you've never seen). She almost fell asleep with a sucker in her mouth.

Sabrina was the door monitor for awhile, with a pillow and blanket set up on the floor while she "waited" for customers. She was downright manic with excitement and purpose.

Jack managed to fill his pumpkin all the way to the top before he gave in and gave up. He spent his last half hour touring the neighborhoodwith Gus and Hayden.

Now it is 8:41 and it is totally quiet. The pumpkins have been turned off, as have most of the lights. For the first time since we moved in, the living room blinds are down. I am sipping my third drink of the night and am feeling warm and self-satisfied having made four different kinds of cookies throughout the course of the day. (I assume you've read my blog, so you realize the significance of this.)

Wish you'd been here, but really, it was kind of anticlimactic. Glad we don't spend a lot of time agonizing over costumes. It's hardly worth it.

Now we get to look forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas. Yee haw!

Love, Linda