The Longest Halloween

When did Halloween become as great a commitment as Christmas? Retailers put Halloween decorations for sale on August 1st. Kids hit the pumpkin patches in early October. Halloween parties begin in the middle of the month. Church, school and friends all throw parties. The building where I work sponsors a costume contest. We added a trip to Disneyland's Halloween Time and reached complete Halloween saturation by October 29th. I was done, done, done with Halloween two days ago. I braced myself for the local school's Halloween Bash and for Halloween itself.

But then Christian fell ill in the middle of the night with a terrible stomach ache and a low fever. Heather was wiped out taking care of Juliet so I spent much of the night with Christian. He missed the school bash and was in sad shape Halloween day. He rallied in the afternoon and carved his first pumpkin start to finish with minimal help from dad. See below - second from the right. Come time to don his outfit, Christian fell sick again and just couldn't go trick or treating. I took Erika out with the neighborhood kids and she had a great time.

Funny thing - I lost Erika for a minute. She and another 4 year old neighbor named Josh ran ahead and became mixed up with another group of trick or treaters. I found them in front of an old woman's house and dragged them back to our group. We returned to the same old woman's house a few minutes later but Erika and Josh wouldn't leave the woman's porch. I approached and poor Josh was crying loudly pacing back and forth on the porch. Erika looked stunned. The woman looked at me and said "They've been here before - only one per child." I politely chortled "Oh yeah, they got mixed up in another group that was here before and now their back, sorry abou. . ." She interrupted me and repeated "Only one per child, I've seen this Red Riding Hood and Superman before." By then Erika was walking away but Josh was so distraught he kept crying on the Grinch's porch. She looked at him again and said "Only one per child." Really lady? Are your Smarties that precious? The kid is bawling in your face, obviously doesn't understand why everyone except him walked away with candy, and you're going to stand on principle? Fine. On the way home I saw Heather with Christian. Apparently he rallied and hit a few homes before retiring to bed. At the end of the night I told Heather about the Halloween Grinch. Her reply? She sighed and said dismissively "Old people."

UPDATE: Someone stole four of our five pumpkins. Okay, so maybe some kids threw them down the hill or squashed them on the street but I searched and found no evidence of such hijinks. They are just gone. I suspect the paperboy. Erika was nearly unconsolable when she found them missing.