Halloween

It's not my favorite holiday. And I bet when my kids are out of the house, I'll turn all the lights off and hide upstairs. I'm just not into the glorification of death, dead people and the macabre in general. What I DO like is kids (and adults) getting to dress up as something/one totally different.

Since I have three kids who have been looking forward to Halloween for about.... a year, I had to do the trick or treat thing again this year. My daughter Rose had the best costume: Titania, Queen of the Fairies. Marie came in 2nd with a dragon costume. My son Richard was true to character. He created his costume exactly one hour before we went out. He was........a letter. It was sort of lame, but sort of funny. He may be getting too old for costumes altogether. We'll see what happens next year.

In our town, Halloween is a big deal. There are several houses that do major decorations, dress ups and ...well....mixed drinks. Some of the more noteworthy stops include: The Witches House, The Margarita House and The Pirate House. Hundreds (possibly thousands!) of people swarm throught the streets of central Montara. About every fifth house offers beer, shots of tequila or some other alcoholic beverage. So, you can imagine, it is quite a night out for the parents as well as the kiddies. One guy even took pics of everyone who came by his place to plug his business:

http://montarafog.smugmug.com/gallery/3753739/1/215920241#215934680

I did not partake in the adult goodies this year as I had plans to be functional the next day. My kids managed to bag about 3 pounds of candy in about 2 hours. They had a blast. And my son even stayed with us! What a guy. Poor Marie was always toddling along behind everyone else and Joe and I were yelling, "Wait! Wait!" to the big kids. But we managed to stay together.

Now comes the hard part. The candy. Yuck. I can't STAND all that crappy candy in the house. And the kids asking for it before and after every meal. More candy now? huh? huh?

I laid down the law this morning. "Go through your candy, pick out your top 30 candies, and give the rest to me. We're sending it with a friend to a Russian orphanage." They were not happy. They seemed to believe it was theirs. That I was somehow acting as an arbitrary dictator in confiscating their hard earned goods.

Well, too bad dearies. I just listened to a show on NPR about how sugar increases insulin which not only makes you fat, it gives you heart disease. There is NO way I'm giving children under my jurisdiction free reign with 3 pound bag of candy.

Rose separated her candy right away and brought me the extra. Andrew crept upstairs with his bag and I haven't seen or heard of it since. I got busy and forgot. Gotta remember to snag it back tomorrow.....