Another Halloween come and gone

Keisha waiting for the trick or treaters. We ended up having 31 kids in the end, not a lot, but more than we've ever had before.

Our cute little bear!

Sarah trick or treating for her first time at our next door neighbours. Here she is with Tyler and Summer.


Tyler with the pumpkin that he carved (he was very proud of it).

Summer, and her scary Scream mask, yikes!

This being Sarah's first Halloween, we discussed if Hallowen is something that we would want our children to take part in. We both loved trick or treating when we were kids and that was all the day really was to us. Working in a Christian school for so many years I have come across many families with differing views on Halloween.

I've come to think that most things in moderation seem to be best. I've seen that kids that don't have the opportunity to experience things, be it Halloween, TV, video games, etc often seem to become more obsessed than ever about these things. Although, conversation with the child about the day or item is necessary as well. So, we will embrace the idea of fun, non scary costumes and have a little extra candy one day a year.

The other evening I felt reminiscent of past Halloweens as a child. You know that bit of time when it's still light out and you've got your costume on but it's not quite time to go out yet. All of us kids were just waiting for the moment when mom would say it was time.

Then there are all the memories about the houses in the neighbourhood. We always knew the houses that gave out the most candy, the people at the house that made you sing each year for your treat. We later realized that it really wasn't worth the humiliation of singining for one little piece of candy. There was the Parrot house that was always decked out for Halloween. The house with the monkey tree out front that always creeped us out and where we debated if it was worth knocking on the door.

But the best part of the evening was always when we would get home after an evening of trick or treating, claim a corner of the living room and dump out our candy bags. That's when the sorting would take place. As a teacher, I have learned that this is also a fun math activity for the young ones. We would count out our chocolate bars, etc and make a pile of raisins in the middle for mom to have. Who gives out raisins anyways?

Our house always seemed to run out of candy. Why didn't mom and dad learn to buy more? Who knows. So once we were out of candy to give out my dad would start taking from our piles (I suppose that's why, it was cheaper to take from your kids). That's when we got rid of the gross halloween candy, you know the ones wrapped in halloween wrappers that were sticky and tasted disgusting. And then we would eat candy until we felt sick and go to bed. Fun times in the village indeed!