Halloween 2008

The Boy decided he didn't want to dress up this year, because he's never been big on trick-or-treating (a trait he inherited from me) and the Halloween parade and party at his school are only for the little kids, so we he and his dad (who loves Halloween and refers to it at least once a year as The Gay Christmas) decided they would stay at my place (C lives on a quieter street), decorate my porch, and pass out candy. We invited one of The Boy's friends and a few other people who don't get many trick-or-treaters of their own, ordered pizzas, and had an odd but very fun little party for ourselves. C bought candy, I bought candy, and the two other adults (a wizard and a Mrs. Lovett) who came brought candy and goodies, and we still ran out a few minutes before the official end--we had to turn kids away. (It was either that or give them the only other thing in my cupboards I could think of that came individually wrapped--tea bags.) I'm sure there were close to a hundred kids, and very few of them were teenagers in lame non-costumes, just looking for candy. In fact, the two who actually were in lame non-costumes were very funny and friendly once we called them on it.

The Boy and his friend did the official candy-handing-out duties, so we got to pretty much sit around, eating, drinking, talking to the neighbors, and checking out costumes. There were many store-bought Hanna Montanas and High School Musical cheerleaders (which Mrs. Lovett pointed out to us parents of boys who had no clue), and there were more than a few Pittsburgh Steelers, but there were also a lot of creative and/or well made costumes. One of The Boy's friends, who is a very quiet, creative girl who always looks meek and a bit frightened, attached a whole bunch of those small, individualized cereal boxes to herself and then jammed plastic knives into them: She was, of course, a cereal killer. One set of boys were in very cute Mario and Luigi costumes their mom had made out of red and green t-shirts, ball caps, and creative sewing. One family was dressed as a moon, stars, and planets (but the planet couldn't fit through the walkway in my hedges and had to entrust his bag to someone else while he waited on the street).

A kid from The Boy's soccer team dressed all in black and covered himself with glow sticks, while his little brothers were race car drivers. There were plenty of baby pumpkins and Tiggers in strollers, the cutest, fattest baby Superman I've ever seen, and more Spidermen (Spidermans?) than I could count.

It was a very good night. I'm not a big Halloween person, but this one was a very good time.