Halloween

by Ashley filed under Holiday

11.02.201610.31.2016

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.

Trick-or-Treat

by Ashley filed under Holiday

11.03.201511.02.2015

I feel like a broken record when I admit that Halloween got the best of me because it seems to have the ability to sneak right up on me every year. I start thinking about it early enough to assure myself I have plenty of time and before-I-know-it I’ve done nothing. This year, perhaps, being the worst yet. As in we never even made it to the pumpkin patch. The un-carved pumpkins outside our door are from Vons, for goodness sake.

Though in my defense, both boys decided early on that they wanted to be cowboys and, well, for Hooper it’s the third year in a row he’s opted to be a cowboy (last year, the year before). The third year in a row, mind you, of wearing the same exact cowboy boots that my mother-in-law thankfully must have bought a few sizes up some years ago. And Van, well, he ultimately wanted to be whatever Hooper wanted to be.

The week before Halloween I found myself sifting through their closet to see how I could pull two cowboy costumes out of one. Hooper got the chaps, Van got the vest. Van got the hat, Hooper got the bolo tie and the straw sheriffs hat that my mom happened to have. My sweet friend Shella, from Sweet Threads, came through by sending me the vintage plaid button up Van’s wearing. One pair of cowboy boots resulted in quite a few tantrums until we took a trip over to payless shoes and invested in a second pair. And that was that.

We opted to go trick-or-treating a mile or so from our home down a street that’s notorious for their Halloween festivities; quite the change from last year when we still considered ourselves new-to-the-area and settled for being the lone rangers collecting handfuls of candy from neighbors who were eagerly awaiting trick-or-treaters but got very few. And still I think we came home with more candy last year, from fewer homes, simply based on the fact that the street we went to this year was so jammed backed with lines-out-the-doors trick-or-treaters that the actual handouts were quite small in comparison to the generous handfuls that characterized last Halloween. And yet, the boys know no difference, had no complaints. Less candy for Willy and I to steal, I suppose.

I’m not sure the infamous cowboy costume will survive yet another year, with pieces falling off due not to poor quality but instead to rowdy boys who have insisted on wearing their costumes for several days in a row. Time will tell. But next year I’m determined to carve those damn pumpkins.