The Eventual Halloween

For the second year in a row, Halloween in our neighborhood (heck, I think in our whole state if not the entire region) was cancelled due to a major weather event. This year of course, it was Hurricane Sandy, which hit on October 29. There was no trick or treating on the actual day, no school parties or parades, period.

Oh sure, trick or treating was rescheduled. In our town it was last Monday. When we were still without power. I wasn't about to bundle the kids up in freezing temperatures and walk through a dark neighborhood, nor was I about to answer the door to trick or treaters without a porch light. Honestly that's Leo favorite part, handing out the candy. Ellie, on the other hand, doesn't play. She is all about the getting of the candy. She was not happy at the news that there would be no trick or treating.

Part of me just wanted to forget the whole dang thing. Just the sight of Halloween decorations has semi-bad connotations for me at this point. Bright and early on November 1, Leo and Ellie and I efficiently packed up all the Halloween accouetrement: gone were the witch and ghost figurines from the mantel, adios to the pumpkin garland and candy corn collages.

Let's make Turkeys and hang them all over the house! I practically shrieked, so ready was I to Put Halloween Behind Us. The other day I joked to Erin that I'm going to need doggy tranquilizers next October 31, so fearful am I of Another Spooky Major Weather Event. Third time's a charm?

This year's "official" Halloween (unbeknownst to the kids) was spent changing the radio station and the subject when the newscaster announced it was Halloween (Ellie didn't miss a beat and asked, "It's Halloween today Mommy? Are we going trick or treating?).

Later I did my best to maintain normalcy: We went to the playground and wandered around the neighborhood (anything to keep four stir crazy kids out of the dark, cold house for a few hours). The "highlight" of our day ended up being an impromptu field trip to the local Red Cross Shelter, where the kids ate chips and Cheerios and I was able to charge my cell phone (at first they weren't going to let me, saying the power needed to be conserved for the phones belonging to first responders). I was gracious about it and didn't argue but the gentleman in charge insisted that a woman with four children and no cell phone certainly constituted an emergency (I'll say! No Facebook? No Words With Friends?). KIDDING.

Well, thankfully, life has mostly gone back to normal for us. Unfortunately, Ellie was not taking my lead about the decision to do our best to ignore Halloween this year. She kept asking about trick or treating, kept asking when we were going to have our party (for the record, we were not having a Halloween party but that didn't stop her). I had explained several times that due to the storm it wasn't safe to trick or treat and she understood that. But the power came back on, the streets were cleared of trees and debris. And so her question, understandably, persisted: When are we going trick or treating?

That's when it dawned on me. All the kids really wanted to do was wear their costumes and get some candy.

I know! I exclaimed, not quite sure where I was going with my idea, I just knew that if I had to explain to Ellie one more time...

How about, you dress up in your costumes and you knock on OUR door and we give YOU candy?

Unanimous grins all around.

And that's why Halloween 2012 will be remembered as the Year We Trick or Treated At Our Own House.

And the nice thing about having four kids is you always have an instant party. We didn't even need to invite anyone for it to feel festive. The big kids put on their costumes. We got to dress the babies in their first Halloween costumes and take the proverbial ten thousand pictures. The kids ran around in the sixty-two degree weather (why yes, two weeks ago we had a hurricane! Of course!).

Don't ask me why I felt the need to have Munchkins and apple cider (which I of course forgot to serve) in addition to the Three Musketeers, Milky Way, Twix and M&Ms we still had left over, due to the whole, no Trick or Treaters thing.

I told Ellie she could eat as much candy as she wanted but it would be gone the next day. And like any well-adjusted kid, she ate so much she almost made herself sick, but stopped just short. Later she reported she was going to "Just eat tambourines, because they don't make my stomach feel so yucky."

For the record, she meant tangerines.