Happy Halloween

Halloween has always been a fun sort of day for me. One of my earliest Halloween memories comes from spending the afternoon at my grandparents'. They'd raked up a huge pile of leaves and my brother and I spent hours jumping in it. We'd roll around or bury ourselves in the leaves and just generally made a mess. That was back in the days when people burned leaves. Burning leaves is one of those smells that brings back memories of childhood. When it was dark, my parents took us around the neighborhood to trick-or-treat.

Back in the day, my brother and I would collect quite a bit of loot. We'd go home periodically to dump the candy, sift through it, and give my parents everything we didn't want. They'd give out our rejects when they ran out of candy. I guess candy was cheap because people gave us a lot. Nowadays we have to limit our candy giving to one of those teeny tiny bite size pieces because candy's gotten so expensive. We used to have a wide roaming area for trick-or-treating on our own. Was it really safer then? It seemed to be. We didn't have as much publicity about poisoned candy or child predators out and about.

Eventually we outgrew trick-or-treating but it was still fun to dress up when giving out the candy. There were also Halloween parties to go to. I used to enjoy decorating the place. In the last few years, though, we haven't had any decorations. This season, TB made these pumpkins:

There's a little bit of glare on the windows but it's pretty clear to see they're pumpkins. There are little orange LCD lights in them and we turn them on at night. They're pretty cool!

The neighborhood is pretty beat though. I don't know if it's because we're generally older or if there is a high percentage of conservatives around. Only one or two of the houses are decorated. In the last few years, a declining number of houses leave their lights on for trick-or-treaters. Well...maybe it's the cost of candy, too. I know I said "ouch". I only got a bag or two. Less and less kids have been coming around probably because hardly anyone is giving anything out. I don't bother dressing up anymore. I do still enjoy seeing the kids' costumes.

One of my daughters was invited to a Halloween party over the weekend and she got to dress up. She had a really great time and I'm glad. The kids don't get to do a lot of fun stuff. The costume brought back memories of the years I used to dress up!

The big plan for the evening is to watch a spooky movie with whichever of the kids will be around and to give out candy to anyone who shows up.

The other plan of the day is to get TB to the surgeon's office this afternoon. His incision started leaking a bloody fluid. :P