Rawlins Family

Rawlins Family

Monday, October 30, 2006

As we approach Halloween evening, the night of trick-or-treating, I am coming to a shameful realization...Cameron and Miles are not just my sons on Halloween, they're my patsies. My stool-pigeons, my decoy, my cover. Whatever you want to call it, I use my sons to get me some yummy candy. Up until this point I think it was subconscious. I really WANTED to drag Cameron out all night, freezing his tush off and pulling at the "feathers" I had sewn on him (2005), or the anchor tattoo Chase had drawn on his arm (2004). I really LOVED the idea of watching him go door-to-door and thrust his little open bag up into the air, looking expectant. It was CUTE to hear him learn to say "trick-or-treat", which sounded more like TickTeat. But as we count down the days the thought of all of those glorious mounds of candy piled on my living room floor after a dutiful night trudging down the streets makes me giddy. I LOVE candy. Perhaps it has something to do with my up-bringing or maybe it's encoded in my DNA; I don't know. All I know is that when I see people stringing up orange lights on their trees or sticking skeletons in their front windows I positively drool at the thought of the forthcoming bounty.
So am I ashamed, you ask? No. I have also recently come to realize that I'm not the only parent who feels this way. The more I think about it, the more I realize MY parents were probably known to dip their hands into our confectionary coffers. Think about it. Halloween night usually went like this: You run out of the house with some sort of paint on your face and a great thrift-store dress (or fatigues) that your mom found. In your right hand is a flash-light and in your left hand is a pillow case. No plastic pumpkin for you, no, you plan on striking it rich tonight. For the next FOUR HOURS you cover (and re-cover in many instances) the streets located within a 5 miles radius of your house before returning home exhausted. You and your siblings or friends proceed to dump out your goodies and start categorizing the candy. Then you start trading. But before long mom comes in and tells you that you can have one more piece and then it's time to hand it over and go to bed. No, you're not allowed to take your candy into your room because then you'll just spend all night eating it and getting cavities. So, as a trusting young child you hand over the candy and head for bed. Now here's what you didn't know...it's at this point in the evening that mom feels VERY rewarded for having borne children. She and dad rifle through the bulging bags like homeless people at the dumpster behind Olive Garden. They laugh, they giggle, they pour the candy on the floor and lay down to make candy angels in it...Yeah, I can see your wheels turning. You know I'm right.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are just now coming to this realization?!? Of course, your kids are younger than mine. My confession of the week.... I have to go buy new Halloween candy because I already ate what I bought 3 weeks ago because "it was on sale." Yes, it's goes something like this: well, if I buy it now then I'll save $2.88, when all I'm really concerned with is eating chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate. Anna, you've seen our food storage pantry, it's really just a place to hide/store chocolate. Enjoy your windfall tonight! Also, if you haven't figured this one out, more kids = more candy!

Jeni said...

i know... i am bummed that Natalie wasn't WALKING out of the womb.. I mean i knew halloween would be close so yes I am a little dissapointed she is not walking and can not go door to door.

Anonymous said...

Just heard this on the radio: the average Trick-or-treat loot bag contains 8,000 calories. Bring it on!

Anonymous said...

Very well written! I love it. Imagine when your kids are older and they can cover more area-FASTER! The sky is the limit!
Enjoy!
Kathryn

Anonymous said...

Where's Nemo and Squirt? We're dying to see pics. Until then, we'll "just keep swimming, just keep swimming..."

Kelly said...

aaack! dying of laugher! this must explain why i baught "halloween candy" on the first day of October...hey, it was a good deal! okay, so we had to buy a few more bags for "all of the kids in the neighborhood" and "so we turned off our front door light at 8pm sharp" lay off me I'm starvin'!

Deb said...

Funniest thing I've read in forever. I can just imagine Pat and Sherry rolling around in candy from EIGHT CHILDREN. Makes me rethink my 2-child limit!

Kelly said...

yeah the couches we have are from Ikea...everything we have is from ikea! we really like the couches, however I think the cushons are getting a little flat...it's easy just to put some more batting in or something AND it's hard for BOTH jake and I to lay down together on...so i think next couch we'll get something bigger. other than that it's perfect!