Trick-or-treating report

Feel free to skip this one. I just don’t have anything else to talk about tonight, as Halloween activities consumed all my time pretty much from the moment I got home until now. And that’s perfectly fine. I always enjoy being reminded what good kids I have.

This year Emma went with a bunch of her friends, who were chaperoned by someone else’s dad. He’s a brave, brave man. She left about the time I got home, and I didn’t see her again until I went to pick her up a little after 8 pm. She had a good time, but admitted that Halloween isn’t as fun as it used to be. She’s vowed to stop trick-or-treating as soon as she becomes a teenager and either help hand out the candy or find a party to go to. Good for her. Though I still worry about her sometimes, she’s very sensible in some ways that gives me hope.

Anyway, the two boys went with me, or rather I went with them. They were polite, and kept the brotherly conflict to a minimum. I had a set of parents mention how calm they were with a hint of envy (their kids were younger and barely touching the ground between houses). I would remind them of little things, such as not walking across people’s lawns, or saying “thank you” before they were turning to leave the doorstep, but compared to many kids, those were completely trivial matters.

It was an unusually warm night. Last year was fairly good weather, but I remember it getting cold. Not so this year. It was jacket weather all evening, and I never really noticed it getting cold at all. Considering this time last week we were getting snow, I am not complaining at all.

We managed nearly two hours before the boys started getting tired. There came a point when getting a little bit more candy just wasn’t worth it anymore, and we headed home. By then Emma’s group had run down, too, so I took the dog for a walk with me to go pick her up (She was evidently concerned about teenagers stealing her candy–hard to imagine in a neighborhood where people leave a bucket of candy on their porch with a sign telling kids to help themselves–and there was still plenty to go around by 8 pm!).

Of course afterward comes the Great Sorting and Storing Away. We let them eat a fair bit on Halloween night, but the rest we collect and ration out to them throughout the rest of the year. They’re actually quite supportive of the idea. They really like their weekly Candy Day when they get to chow down on candy after dinner.

We weren’t home long before my sentimental middle child began bemoaning the fact that it was all over so quickly. We’ve learned to roll with it. Tomorrow he’ll have moved on to the next Big Event coming up, but he’s always a little sad when things are over.  The good news is that there is no dearth of “Next Big Events”.

Anyway, the kids have crashed and I’m coming down off the adrenaline and sugar buzz. Another major holiday is over, and we managed to make it a fun one. It’s sad to think that these days will be over all too soon and our kids will all have grown up and moved on to cooler things. Life–and our kids’ lives especially–passes by so quickly. It’s too big a train to try and stop it. All you can do is grab on tight and hold on as it carries you with it.

It’s a great ride, though.