I feel like I must be a broken record because every Halloween I find myself longing for a slice of what Halloween used to be: the costume parade at school and one night of the much anticipated candy fueled excitement for neighborhood trick-or-treating. Last year, we were living in a very accessible townhome and got less than a handful of trick-or-treaters. We booked it down to the main go-to street in San Clemente only to be met with hoards of people, the street lined with Andy Gumps, and the impersonal handing out of candy resulting not from ill-intended homeowners but instead from over-whelmed individuals who simply had no choice but to put candy in bags as fast as they could in an effort to combat the long lines and help move things along. We ultimately headed back to our own neighborhood where eager neighbors were outside their doors begging for trick-or-treaters to come and despite us being the lone ducks, it was nice to actually talk to people and have eyes to meet when saying ‘trick or treat’.

This year, Hooper did not have school on Halloween. Or the day after. The school has conveniently used the week for fall conferences. And I get it; they don’t want to deal with the few who may not celebrate the day or the few that may be put off by costumes deemed ‘inappropriate’ or ‘scary’ or – let’s face it – the sugar loaded savages that are our children. I get it. In it’s place they held a school sanctioned trunk-or-treat, turning what used to be one night of candy into two. And it was fun, don’t get me wrong (minus my inability to wrangle the 5 children I had with me and being called more than once up to the center to retrieve a lost child). Guess I just miss the simplicity of having one costume, one night, one round of candy.

Maybe I’m Scrooge. I mean, the boys had a blast at all the festivities and I suppose that’s all it’s about. Yes, I’m Scrooge. I must be. I guess in the end it doesn’t matter — more candy for me to steal.

Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween, free of clowns and drenched in peanut butter cups. Unless your kid has an allergy. In that case, drenched in twix.