Trick or Treat!

For the last several years, Halloween has been a disappointment to me. It's one of my favorite holidays and I enjoy all the hoopla surrounding it. In the time that I've lived here in Silicon Valley, the only Halloween spirits I saw were at the parties I attended. On those Halloween nights I was actually at home, the trick or treaters were far and few between. It is very disappointing to dress up your home to entertain/frighten/amuse potential trick or treaters, only to have a half dozen, or two, or less arrive to partake of your carefully selected goodies. It's even worse when, in the totally bizarre situation we had last year, you have NONE.

(What is it about that anyway? Do I choose neighborhoods to live in that are Halloween-free zones, and no one thought to share that with me? Is it the cultural or socio-economical zone I inhabit? I know it's not endemic, because in the days following Halloween, my co-workers share trick or treating stories and candy with me. Do I smell funny? [don't answer that...] Is my boyfriend too scary? Who knows?! Maybe it's the pumpkins.... This picture is of this year's set at our house.)

I was bound and determined to be a part of the trick or treating this year. Knowing that nothing was going to happen at our house, Don, Gabe and I went to Los Gatos to join the trick or treating throngs that swarm the residential streets. (I learned about it online.) We got there around 7:00 pm and headed out. Gabe was quite uncertain, initially, and refused to say his sweet little "trickortreat!" to the first several people whose homes we approached. In fact, some homes he refused to approach because they were too scary. When would come up to a door that wasn't too scary, he would hide his face against my shoulder and say, "no!" quite loudly. Thank goodness, he almost always said, "thank you" despite all that.

After about the fourth house, he about had a fit. I guess I didn't prepare him well enough for what he was going to experience and he was upset at all the activity and strangeness. He started demanding to open one of the candies he had just received - he didn't know that putting these packages into his jack-o-lantern basket meant that he could have some later. All he saw was that he was given a shiny, sparkly, crinkly neat-o thing and had to immediate put it out of sight! So, I called a break and sat him down on the curb. He got to open one of the candies and eat it. Quel surprise, he became quite enthusiastic about going up to the homes of total strangers and demanding, "Trick or Treat!" It took a few tries to get the whole ritual trained into him, but by about halfway through the night, he was marching down the sidewalk, firmly holding mommy's or daddy's hand, announcing, "Next house!"

Needless to say, we had a good Halloween. What did you all do for Halloween this year?