From all the sugar consumed yesterday! Not getting many trick or treaters means lots of candy left over. I know I should buy candy I don't like, but then I feel like I've wasted money. It's a personal Catch 22. I was sitting in a four hour long meeting this morning regretting not having brought the candy to work with me. I missed a golden opportunity to unload the leftover candy and sugar up an otherwise uneventful meeting.
I'm tired, but all the running around was worth it. DD loved trick or treating. What's not to love? I hadn't been trick or treating since I was a teenager, but I enjoyed it as much this year as I did back then. At first she was happy just to be putting her costume on and going for a ride in the stroller. I'm not sure why the stroller is a novelty to her now, but I'm happy it is because it means I don't have to carry her when she decides she doesn't want to walk anymore. She's getting heavy! Then she realized that each house was giving her chocolate, her favorite food. She quickly figured out that if she said, "more, pease!" that most of the kind people giving out candy would give her more. "Tank you!" She started shopping through her goody bag about five houses in, quickly identifying the chocolate and requesting, "Open, pease!" in a happy little singsong. Fortunately, we had anticipated this and had a little bag of m&ms that could be meted out one at a time every few houses. When she's bigger we will make clear the "no eating the candy until we get home" rule. For now, she's two. She will have forgotten all about the m&ms by next year. And I have hidden her candy from this year, to be dispensed gradually. I had a nightmare about finding her in the living room with wrappers strewn around her, giggling and bouncing off the walls for hours. I'm just not ready for that yet.
I suspect that I will not be allowed to put her costume away. She has asked to wear it for the last 4 days in a row. I see a project for mommy in the not so distant future...starting a dress up box. I should probably get a toybox for the rest of her toys first, should add both to my to-do list. Check.
I think DH really enjoyed trick or treating too. Pretty sure he was just humoring me initially, but he had a good time. I got him a "costume" at the dollar store - glasses with a nose and mustache attached. I thought he would mock me but figured it was worth $1 to find out. Surprisingly, he did not mock and did wear them. He even rigged them up to make them fit him! Woohoo! I love Halloween, so i am disappointed when he is grinchy about it. I think it helped that we went trick or treating with our next door neighbors and their three kids, and that he saw a few other dads out. The plan for next year is to hit a couple key houses on our street and then head over a couple blocks to an area with sidewalks and houses that are closer together. Now I just need three costume ideas for next year...
Showing posts with label Halloween. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Halloween. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Halloween Festivities and Nostalgia
I have a feeling that by this time next week, I will be all Halloweened out. I love Halloween and all it's accompaniments, so we cover a lot of ground this time of year. Going pumpkin picking, carving or painting pumpkins, decorating our porch and living room, finding a costume for my DD, "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown", trick or treating, Halloween parades and fall festivals at school, and, of course, eating chocolate. Halloween falling on a Monday seems to have drawn the celebration out some, as the festivities at DD's daycare are starting on Thursday with special Halloween treats for the kids during the day. For some reason, they decided to have the Halloween parade and party on Friday instead of Monday, so I am just now realizing that we will be dressing up Friday, Saturday and Monday. Whew. Saturday is a costume/birthday party and a Philadelphia Flyers game. Sunday will be for Mommy to recover from running and driving all over creation, and then Monday is trick or treating. Since DD is only 2, this consists of hitting a couple of friends' houses in the neighborhood and a nice brisk walk with the stroller. I hope.
I love Halloween and used to love getting dressed up. Some of this is nostalgia for my childhood; I trick or treated until I was 18. This may sound strange to some, but it was the standard in the town I grew up in. There were as many teenagers roaming the streets in costume as there were little ones. And the vast majority were legitimate trick or treaters, not annoying teenagers terrorizing small children. Almost no one was too cool to get dressed up and go out. We would develop a strategy for hitting the largest number of houses possible in the time before the 8 pm curfew. My mom kept ballpark counts of the number of trick or treaters who came to our house, and 100 or more was pretty standard. My mom often says that one of the things she liked about our small town was that it seemed that kids were able to be kids longer there, and Halloween is a good example of what she meant.
I also had the advantage of having parents who were willing to invest time and resources into creating homemade costumes. My brother and I had some really great costumes over the years. My mom sewed and my dad was willing to figure out ways to manipulate things like corrugated cardboard into various shapes and providing painting assistance when needed. My mom sewed a beautiful Snow White costume for me before the days of Disney mass production. I had witch, princess, bride, flapper costumes, all homemade. I am excited for the day in the near future when I can go through the costume box my mom kept and hopefully DD will want to wear some of them. Some of our more complicated costumes involved more than a sewing machine to manufacture. A (cardboard) book, lady on a pedestal (the pedestal did not fare well during trick or treating), St George on his horse, Pixie sitting on a toadstool (toadstool didn't survive), jellyfish...I know there are more, but these are the ones coming to mind right now. My husband is not a fan of Halloween, and I think his parents' disinterest is part of the reason for this. They basically left him to his own devices in finding costumes from a young age and didn't provide the creative support that both of my parents did.
I'm determined that Halloween will be fun for DD, but I have some obstacles to overcome. I don't know how to work a sewing machine. It's never too late to learn, but I also don't have much in the way of free time to develop these skills. I will figure this one out as I go along, not going to worry about it at this point. Thus far I have been able to get high quality costumes for her either for free (hand-me-downs) or at very reasonable prices. Next obstacle is the neighborhood we live in. I love where we live most of the time, but we are in a most undesirable trick or treating neighborhood! We get less than 5 kids per year knocking on our door on Halloween. Our street is a dead end with no sidewalks, long driveways and no good shortcuts from house to house because of hills and retaining walls. I think my best way around this one as she gets more into the years for trick or treating is going to be to develop a new tradition of trick or treating with friends who live across town.
As we creep closer to Halloween, I'm looking forward to dressing my little witch!! We are a dog family, but for one day, I will be a black cat for DD - but shh, don't tell our German Shepherd.
October 31, 2011: My prediction in this post came true...today is actually Halloween and I am exhausted! Of course, I failed to predict the snowstorm that deposited 5 inches of snow here on Saturday. I've never seen a white Halloween before! I'm just hoping it's warm enough to hit the houses of some good friends before heading home tonight. Wish me luck!
I love Halloween and used to love getting dressed up. Some of this is nostalgia for my childhood; I trick or treated until I was 18. This may sound strange to some, but it was the standard in the town I grew up in. There were as many teenagers roaming the streets in costume as there were little ones. And the vast majority were legitimate trick or treaters, not annoying teenagers terrorizing small children. Almost no one was too cool to get dressed up and go out. We would develop a strategy for hitting the largest number of houses possible in the time before the 8 pm curfew. My mom kept ballpark counts of the number of trick or treaters who came to our house, and 100 or more was pretty standard. My mom often says that one of the things she liked about our small town was that it seemed that kids were able to be kids longer there, and Halloween is a good example of what she meant.
I also had the advantage of having parents who were willing to invest time and resources into creating homemade costumes. My brother and I had some really great costumes over the years. My mom sewed and my dad was willing to figure out ways to manipulate things like corrugated cardboard into various shapes and providing painting assistance when needed. My mom sewed a beautiful Snow White costume for me before the days of Disney mass production. I had witch, princess, bride, flapper costumes, all homemade. I am excited for the day in the near future when I can go through the costume box my mom kept and hopefully DD will want to wear some of them. Some of our more complicated costumes involved more than a sewing machine to manufacture. A (cardboard) book, lady on a pedestal (the pedestal did not fare well during trick or treating), St George on his horse, Pixie sitting on a toadstool (toadstool didn't survive), jellyfish...I know there are more, but these are the ones coming to mind right now. My husband is not a fan of Halloween, and I think his parents' disinterest is part of the reason for this. They basically left him to his own devices in finding costumes from a young age and didn't provide the creative support that both of my parents did.
I'm determined that Halloween will be fun for DD, but I have some obstacles to overcome. I don't know how to work a sewing machine. It's never too late to learn, but I also don't have much in the way of free time to develop these skills. I will figure this one out as I go along, not going to worry about it at this point. Thus far I have been able to get high quality costumes for her either for free (hand-me-downs) or at very reasonable prices. Next obstacle is the neighborhood we live in. I love where we live most of the time, but we are in a most undesirable trick or treating neighborhood! We get less than 5 kids per year knocking on our door on Halloween. Our street is a dead end with no sidewalks, long driveways and no good shortcuts from house to house because of hills and retaining walls. I think my best way around this one as she gets more into the years for trick or treating is going to be to develop a new tradition of trick or treating with friends who live across town.
As we creep closer to Halloween, I'm looking forward to dressing my little witch!! We are a dog family, but for one day, I will be a black cat for DD - but shh, don't tell our German Shepherd.
October 31, 2011: My prediction in this post came true...today is actually Halloween and I am exhausted! Of course, I failed to predict the snowstorm that deposited 5 inches of snow here on Saturday. I've never seen a white Halloween before! I'm just hoping it's warm enough to hit the houses of some good friends before heading home tonight. Wish me luck!
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