This is from Halloween '06. I'm still trying to collect my thoughts enough to put together a coherent blog entry. I figured I'd dust off this oldie, but goodie.
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 upbringing 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.
5 comments:
I enjoyed this post just as much the second time around as I did the first. PRICELESS! Also, too...what are some good costumes for a child still in the womb? Think I can get away with it?
Our little thing is that we only ever get like 3 trick or treaters each year. But we still buy candy like we'll have a million. Mmmmmm. Candy. And I do think it's in your DNA, because it's in mine too.
I couldn't stop laughing! It is so true! For us though, it is with Charlie; he tries every year to corrupt me or have the children bribe me, but my DNA says, "too much candy to see, less appetite to go around." Now, it's different with dark chocolates... The more the better!
I get a kick out of seeing my kids beg for candy at every lit house on any chosen block. I get positively irate when not every single moment is captured. ;)
LOL! I vividly remember this post. And Halloween is still the one and only time it's good to be the mom of a peanut-and-egg-allergy kid. He can't eat any of his candy!! How great is that!
On another Halloween note gals, I am organizing Mason's Halloween party on Friday and stupidly decided to make my own Halloween Bingo cards. The game-lover I am, I didn't realize when I first started that they all needed to be DIFFERENT. Gah. Yes, I know you can download them online, but none suited me at the time. In hindsight, I'm thinking I could have found something that would have worked. Anyway, six hours later I now have my very-own Halloween BINGO set with 30 different cards using Halloween-themed words instead of numbers. If any of you supermoms want it for filler for your Halloween parties that I know you're planning, I'd be happy to email you a PDF file. Ours is personalized with a "Mrs. Perry" square, which I will happily change for you. I just printed mine on white paper because I'm too lazy to go out and buy orange. You can email me at uglymomsclub@hotmail.com if you don't already have my email.
That's all.
Thanks for the re-post Anna! You have many treasures in your archives.
I totally spread out all the candy on the floor and categorize it. Does everyone do that? I hate that there is always a bad pile. Why do people have to get the cheap stuff? Once I had a person give me a full size candy bar. That's my idea of Halloween!
Ana, Oh my goodness! NOBODY and I mean NOBODY can crack me up like you! ask jon, I thought this was SO HILARIOUS that I waited until commercials (of the Mavs game-which is awesome by the way) and read it to Jon, I couldn't even get through it, I was laughing so hard!!!! Now I wish you and I were going trick-or-treating together ....One in purpose! hmmmm, no wonder all those hours at the gym havent paid off.
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