It's not easy to steer kids away from costumes of evil, death and fright at Halloween. But this year, I can report that three of our children fought against the dark side (or at least dressed the part), and one was morally neutral.
The golden angel,
Luke Skywalker (Yes, Cole wanted to be Luke),
and "nothing," via a black morph suit.
So we were off to a good start with costumes, but exactly where to spend the holiday was a conundrum, knowing Rich would be out of town. I wanted to spend it at home in hopes of getting to know our new neighbors, but Halloween without good friends or family did not interest the kids. I've observed over the years that their priority at Halloween is not just candy acquisition, but with whom they acquire the candy. So we crashed Uncle Clint's neighborhood, and the kids got to trick or treat with their cousins. Clint and I trailed behind the kids, laughing at each of them in turn.
CORA: By house number 3, Cora was scared. Some of the houses had set up some intentionally scary stuff, which baffled the golden angel's little mind. "Why was that man laughing like Ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaaa?" So when she took her candy she let them know. "This is toooo scary! I was crying." And then she said she was ready to go home.
COLE: Instead of "Trick or Treat," Cole shouted to each candy-giver, "Merry Christmas! Put some candy in my stocking!" And then giggled. Sometimes he substituted other random holidays like St. Patrick's Day, but essentially I got to hear the same joke about 60 times.
At one point his eagerness got the better of him, and he ran ahead, creating several minutes of panicked searching for me, in which I figured he'd been sucked into one of the houses and I would probably never know which one.
LUKE: At one point Luke's eagerness got the better of him, and he ran ahead, again causing several minutes of panicked searching for me (Yes, same scenario, different child). When I found him, I said "WHAT WERE YOU DOING, YOU CANNOT GO OFF ON YOUR OWN!" He responded, "I wasn't alone. I was with two adults and three new friends. Really nice people."
By the end of the night, he decided he had "too much" candy. So when there was no more to pass out to trick or treaters, he started passing out candy from his own bag.
JACK: While he can see through his morph suit during the day, nighttime can be a challenge, so he needed a little guidance from cousin Caleb. But that didn't keep him from measuring his candy, estimating its weight, and insisting that we go to more houses. One more street, one more street, one more...
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