candy coma

Last night was all about the candy.
As Halloween has been for years for children across this country.
We woke up yesterday morning with a sense of high anticipation.
As the afternoon deepened, we could barely contain our excitement.
Our first stop was at McDonald's with friends for re-fueling.
We had showed up as Qui-gon Jinn (Obi-wan Kenobi's jedi mentor),

Luke Skywalker,

and Peter Pan.

Scott and I showed up as ourselves.
My friend, Paula, also showed up as....me.
With a freakish black wig on that could not be controlled by clips.
That one lady who said mean things about my hair
would have re-thought her comments on going dark
if she saw how hot Paula looked last night.
2nd stop was the harvest festival.
There was the bounce house, the ring toss and of course, the candy.
Jack scared the pastor because for some reason the eye holes in his mask
were the exact same size as his real eyes.
This brought on the Mona Lisa effect where his eyes would follow you.
While not noticed at first glance, Qui-gon Jinn bears an uncanny
resemblance to some pre-raphaelite renderings of Jesus.

So as Jack looked at you from his his mask
you felt like it was Jesus peering into your soul.
None of us would look him directly in the eye.
Then we went trick or treating around our neighborhood.
We were joined by the Jensens and Uncle Brett and Aunt Jenny.
Candy bonanza.
It brought to mind those cold Illinois nights,
in my $2.99 plastic bunny costume with the mask that would get muggy
from condensation as we ran from house to house.
A lot of sugary goodness was tossed into those little boys candy
buckets last night. At each house their little buddy Gabe,would say,
"Trick or Treatin'!" And there was a lot of treatin'!
As the children labored to carry their candy filled pumpkins,
we adults would urge them on.
"There's a good house! Look at all the pumpkins! Say THANK YOU!"
When else during the year can you go up to anyone's home,
mostly people you don't know or have only seen mowing their lawn,
ring their doorbell and they will throw open their door showering
you with candy? Never.
At one point, Jack turned to me and said,
"Mom, I know another good thing about Halloween besides the candy."
"What?"
"We get to meet lots of people that we've never met before."
It was true. And we were greeted with a lot of joy since who doesn't
love seeing little ones dressed up, begging for treats?
When we finally made it back to the house, all three boys
dumped out their candy and Addie danced a happy jig around his pile.
They began to count their pieces because you must.
it is a halloween tradition.
And then Jenny turned to me and said,"Now the trading begins."
NAFTA is put to shame by the serious trade deals that go down
with Halloween candy.
And my children will have to learn what children down through
the ages have learned, no one with any sense will ever trade for
a Bit o' Honey. Unless you went to a house with hippies, and they
gave you some of that weird sesame candy or peanut butter taffy,
then maybe, someone will trade for the Bit o'Honey.
Take the Bit o' Honey as a loss and move on.
So goes another Halloween.
A lot of joy. A lot of laughter. A lot of pumpkins.
And oh, yes. A whole lot of candy.