Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Halloween

So, Halloween is not our family's best holiday. We tend to have bad luck when we attempt to have a fun and festive time. Last year C.T. was very, very sick with a bad case of croup that really had me scared (if only I had had Ipacac like Anne Shirley did for Diana's little sister)and naturally we didn't go trick-or-treating or anything. This year sickness struck again - this time it was a stomach bug, and the victim was again CT. He did manage to do some trick-or-treating, but his heart wasn't in it, poor little guy. We would come up to a house and I would say "would you like to go ask for a piece of candy here?" and he would say "No, I just want a drink". Fortunately a fellow ward member gave him a Capri-Sun as his treat and we made it home all right. Lily liked trick-or-treating though. She didn't like people putting the candy in her bucket for her. Instead she would take it from their hand and put it in the bucket herself. If they let her pick her own candy from their bowl she was a happy girl. She would even reach in a second time and get more candy, all of her own accord, and put it in CT's bucket for him since he was being an anti-trick-or-treater. The disappointing part for me was that people would choose what candy to give to Lily and CT and they would always pick the lollipop over the snickers bar for children so little. Hello! Don't these people realize that even toddlers like chocolate? And what's more, there is no way my kids are going to be interested in eating 50 lollipops over the course of the next few weeks, and obviously neither am I, while the chocolate would have been quite a different story, with the whole family sharing and enjoying it. Oh well. I'll just have to do what my mom did and wait until they get old enough to get the really good stuff and just ask them for a percentage.

Another thing - I think generosity is good, and it is nice when people feel they want to give out handfuls of candy to each child, but there is a downside, which is that then certain children expect all households to have an unlimited supply of candy. One trick-or-treater actually said to me "Can have two of those, because I really like Skittles". I looked that spider man in the eye and said "Oh, I'm sure you'll be getting plenty more of them elsewhere" and sent him on his way.

4 comments:

Mendy said...

I love it that you send Spidey on his way. I actually had a kid come right up to the door and ask if I had any "Sugar Daddy's." I laughed apologetically and said I was sorry I didn't take requests. I mean, I have Twix, Snickers, Starbursts, M&M's, Reece's...and he wanted Sugar Daddy's?

I am so sorry that your little guy got sick again. That's just not right! No child should be sick on Halloween.

I hear you on the Snickers thing. There is never one of those little suckers left in my house by November 2. I have no self-control.

At the ward party, Mackenna chose a box of Hot Tamales from one sister's bowl. As I ate them, I thought of you and the train rides across Europe.

Liz the Poet said...

What a bummer that CT was sick! I hope he's feeling better so he can begin to enjoy his candy.

(Oh, and I agree about the suckers. Chocolate all the way!)

Laura said...

Ditto everything! And I can totally see you saying that to Spiderman. The nerve of him!!

And...as soon as you said "a bad case of the croup" I thought of Anne Shirley before you even said it! I'm actually coming down with a bad case of something...maybe the remedy will be an Anne marathon this weekend!

Gina said...

Comment to Wendy: I was so bugged on halloween by kids moving my hand out of the candy bucket and then fishing around for their favorites. What ever happened to manners and politeness? Am I too bold on the matter?

Comment to Laura: Anne marathons cure anything!