Bennett's second Halloween was interesting. And a little depressing, really. Anybody who knows me, knows that I am very into the whole Halloween spirit. But this year I just didn't have it in me. Which is probably why this sad little blog post didn't make an appearance earlier. I don't think it had as much to do with Matt being gone as it did with me continually forgetting to put up decorations, (which are still sitting in their boxes in my garage) but we just never really got around to being very Halloweenie this year. We did decorate for Fall, but not specifically for Halloween.
Another Halloweenie-hindrance: this year it landed on a Sunday. Growing up, I was taught that anytime a holiday lands on a Sunday (except Easter) you celebrate the Saturday night before. However, Bennett and I were at his Aunt Sarah's wedding the Saturday night before, so this never happened. Except that Bennett did wear some super spooky pajamas.
Finally, the wedding itself took place in Fredericksburg--an hour-and a half drive from home. So the most exciting thing that happened on actual Halloween day was Bennett setting off the panic alarms in the hotel elevator (who puts giant red buttons at child's-eye view? Those hotel people were asking for it). The rest of the day was spent at church, watching Josh and Sarah open yet another huge pile of presents, and driving home.
And it is a miracle we made it home. Because I have never been that tired in my entire life. I think whatever sickness Bennett had over the weekend rubbed off a little on me, and I was so excited when we finally pulled into our driveway. Bennett was excited, too. He had spent the last hour and a half comfortably napping in his car seat, and he was ready to p.l.a.y. Sometimes I really need to correlate our schedules a little better. All I wanted to do was lay down and sleep, but since it was only 5:30 in the afternoon I thought it would be better to just keep moving until a more decent bedtime hour. So I made us some dinner. And then I remembered it was Halloween.
Originally, I had planned to let Bennett trick-or-treat the halls of the hotel we were staying in for Sarah and Josh's wedding. It would be mostly our family staying there anyway, so I bought a huge bag of candy intending to let each family member take a couple pieces to their rooms, and then give them back to Bennett when he came to their door. However, Bennett was one tired-out little boy after the reception, so he ended up just going straight to bed and loving it. And I ended up with one huge bag of candy...and eating almost all of it. (Really. It was grossly delicious.)
So after dinner on Halloween day, I remembered Bennett's candy bucket which was still partially full of assorted chocolate delights, and I thought, "What the Heck? It's Halloween!" And I let Bennett eat as many pieces as he wanted.
Yes, you heard me right. Go ahead and call CPS, I was too tired to care at the moment. So Bennett made a good-sized dent in his candy bucket at three kit-kats, a few packages of rolos, a sucker, two boxes of milk duds, and a package of reses-pieces, before I realized my child had no limit to the amount of sugar he could inhale and I had to take the bucket away. At this point our huge bag of 86 assorted chocolate candies was whittled down to about 12 boxes of milk duds (apparently not a family favorite), and I am not ashamed to admit that there was a hint of pride in my eyes as I watched our son follow in his mothers' chocolaty footsteps.
And that was Halloween.
However, it was not the end of the day and I was still fighting sleep, so I called my friendy-friend Joelle and we decided to go on a walk. So I gathered up a super sticky Bennett and was heading for the door, when all of a sudden there were three little shadows standing on my doorstep. Three child sized shadows. In costume. Ringing my doorbell.
What in the World? Didn't these kids know Halloween was celebrated Saturday night? And I couldn't give them candy, because Bennett just ate pretty much everything that was left. So we did the only logical thing. We hid. I backed up from my door as sneakily as I could, which was pretty un-sneaky considering there is a huge window in my door I'm sure the trick-or-treators could see me clearly through. Also, Bennett was yelling "Jace! Jace!" at the top of his lungs, trying to open the door. I'm almost positive it was anything but a clean getaway. But regardless of our inability to quietly leave, we were very good at sitting in my bathtub and "waiting them out" as they rang the doorbell again, and again, and again.
Oh man, who does that?! I feel like a terrible person right now! I was just so unprepared. So. Very. Sadly. Unprepared. Because guess what? It wasn't just those three little shadows out there that didn't get the memo of Halloween being on Saturday. It was the entire town. Seriously, I have never seen so many little people in one place except at amusement parks and McDonald's play areas. And they were all coming to my house.
I finally came to the conclusion that I couldn't spend all night hiding in my bathtub, so I waited for a lull in the doorbell ringing and made a mad dash for the front door. I threw Bennett into his stroller, sprinted to the middle of the street, and then tried to act casual as I walked away from my dark empty home. Did I mention I could feel guilty about anything? This single act of unspiritedness is something I will probably take to my grave.
Despite my guilty feelings, though, the night turned out pretty well. It was a nice warm night, so most of our neighbors sat in lawn chairs in their front yards, or in the backs of their cars, passing out candy. Like a giant trunk-or-treat. And because we were out with the crowd, people kept trying to give us candy, too. We kept insisting we were not out for candy, that our children were not even in costume, and that my son was already covered in chocolate so it was pretty obvious he'd enjoyed himself previously, but nobody listened. They were practically throwing it at us as we walked down the street, so we had no choice but to take it.
And that is the story of how we accidentally trick-or-treated on a day I had no idea people celebrated. It was pretty exciting, but I think next year we will aim for a more traditional approach to the holiday.
My poor neighbors.
Bennett's personal Halloween celebration. I really have no idea what face he is making here, but feel free to embrace it.
Informing me he wasn't done yet, after I took the bucket away.
Some of the evidence.
1 comment:
Truly a Halloween to remember! Thanks for taking the time to share it with us. We love you guys!
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