Oh Joyous Gimme, Gimme Day

Err, I mean Happy Halloween! The kids had a very fun night trick-or-treating in our town along side the other 1200+ kiddies last night. You see, we live in a strange area. No subdivisions really, no close neighborhoods that allow "outsiders" (yes a couple of the neighborhoods block off their entrances to people who don't live there on Halloween)and lots of dark wooded areas with narrow roads and no side walks, street lights or other pedestrian-friendly things. Houses are somewhat far between for today's standards so many people head to Main Street for trick-or-treating. This is a well known fact, and even potential buyers of homes on Main Street are told that it is pretty much "expected" and "a responsibility" that if you buy one of the multi-million dollar homes on Main Street, you will treat the masses that come running, screaming, pushing, and shoving at your door on Oct. 31.

So like every other good parent in town, we took our kiddos to Main Street. We waited in lines 30-40-50 people deep at peoples homes to get the full size candy bar or whatever other goody they may be sharing. M caught on VERY QUICKLY to the whole gimme gimme scene. The kids smiled, laughed, and were in awe of some of the decorations, especially the house with the circus tent and music on their front lawn (we did convince the kids to skip this house though because the line was a good 20-30 minutes long! Even the old-fashioned popcorn popper thing-a-ma-gig giving bags of popcorn to the parents didn't entice us to wait.) Bummer that we didn't find the house handing out the "beverages" to the adults.

So, thank you Main Street. The children had a wonderful Gimme night!

PS. N was Dracula, J was a power ranger, and M was a lady bug. Their choices this year. Sadly I can no longer bribe or otherwise coerce them into being what I deem best. Last year was the end of it I guess...Raggedy Ann & Andy will only live on in my photos!

PPS. We had our chili cook off/Halloween party on Sunday. I'm sure you will all be heartbroken to hear that I was not crowned chili queen again this year. Some dead cow loaded, mouth on fire, sure to make your heart cry concoction won. Sigh. I guess some people don't know good chili when they savor it. :-) But it was still a good time!