Trick-or-Treat

Another halloween come and gone. My kids, like all other kids, love halloween with the excitement of dressing-up topped with lots and lots of candy! I love seeing the kids all dressed up and carving pumpkins. Harry, however, absolutely hates halloween. He grudgingly goes along with the festivities but really hates it. I really like it up until we are leaving our the fourth stop, the kids are whining about someone "stealing" their candy, part of Alex's outfit is falling off, and we are busy removing and replacing Lyra's wings as we buckle her in-and-out of the car seat.

See, we live in the country and do country treat-or-treating - much different from our city counterparts. Here are the differences:

1. We do not have a designated night to go out - you need to be prepared any night within a week of halloween.

2. We do not walk door-to-door (mostly because walking a half mile between stops is not practical with 2, 4, 6, and 9 year-olds.) This means taking the kids out in the mini-van and strapping up between each stop - which means I should be careful with which costumes I choose but always seems to forget.

3. We only go to family and friends homes that we know well. I really enjoy stopping in to see people we love. However, instead of the normal "Trick-or-Treat", grab a hand full of candy and dash to the next house, we stand around and talk.

4. Because we stand around talking too long, we used to have to dress-up several nights in a row to get to all the required houses! Talk about dragging out the torture - no wonder Harry has learned to despise this event! Now we only do one night since the kids are older, we pared down the list of stops to only the essentials (grandparents and a few close neighbors), and we are a lot smarter (or less tolerant) than we used to be. Now, before you feel too sorry for the lack of candy our kids get for only going to a few places, we come to #5.

5. Because we only get a few trick-or-treaters in the country, we give large bags full of candy to each kid. So the pumpkins are full after a couple stops!