Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween!



We've never been very big on Halloween celebrations and trick-or-treating in our family.  Since we moved up here on the hill, we've had a total of 9 trick-or-treaters in seven years.  Needless to say, after the first year or two of disappointment -not to mention tons of left over candy to eat, we stopped buying candy to pass out.


We should have known better.  The very next year, we had two kids show up and we were not prepared.  Mark, frantically searching for something to pass out, opened his wallet and handed the taller of the two a dollar bill and made him promise to share. 


Realizing that if the word got out, we'd have 458,588 kids beating on our door hoping for a dollar, we decided to go out to dinner instead. 


You would think we'd know what to do the following year, right?


Heck no...at the appointed witching hour, 6PM, two little kids, dressed as super heros, knocked at the door...this time Mark frantically pulled the cork out of the bottom of the family piggy bank and dumped the change on the table and searched out two quarters for the kids.  That year he got smart and ran to the store for a package of Kit Kats, his favorite candy bar.  Since we had no more tricksters, he had to eat them himself!


Last year Mark was away on a business trip so my brother and I took my niece to my mother's house so she could trick-or-treat in our old neighborhood.  Even though my family moved into that house in 1960, that block feels like it is frozen in time.  Many of the neighbors then are still there, or the house has passed on to other family members. 


Daniel and I followed my mom and niece around and when people answered the door, we gave them candy!  No one seemed shocked.  One neighbor, a classmate from high school who now lives in his grandparents' house, thanked us as though we did it on a daily basis...go figure!


Anyway...I have a Growth Group meeting at the church tonight, Tony and Morgan are taking the daughter of a friend out and Andy said he's working on his lawn mower in my garage...if you are going out, stay safe.   If you are staying home, hope you have a bit of candy left over for a late night snack.


Happy Halloween,
Jan

2 comments:

Kerin said...

Cute story about the trick-or-treating money; you've had quite a few quirky Halloweens :)
We don't have any Halloween candy yet... yikes.
Going to have to get some... just in case.
Have an enjoyable time tonight at your church group. It will be good for you to get out of the house for a bit.
Happy 'Boo' day to ya :)

Julie said...

Love these stories - great memories! We're always out with the kids, so we never get to hand out candy.