"There's something prowling on the fence out there..."

[mousme]

I am rediscovering the joys of Hallowe'en this year. Not that I didn't enjoy it before, but getting all my own decorations somehow has sparked the little-kid kind of enjoyment that I haven't experienced in a very long time.

I've been researching how to carve pumpkins on the internet. Not that I don't know how to do basic pumpkin carving, but pdaughter's really cool pumpkin has inspired me to try doing something a little more complex this year. My artistic skills are next to nil, but I found some fun patterns on the internet that I'm pretty sure I can replicate, given enough time and patience. Maybe with a few years' experience I will be able to come up with my own patterns.

This afternoon, as I mentioned, I will be putting up the rest of the decorations. I am tempted to see if I can go buy my pumpkins today, too, but I'm not sure I'll have the time.

I'm really looking forward to having the kiddies come to my door for candy. This will be my fourth year running that I'll have handed out candy on Hallowe'en, and for the past three years I have been very pleasantly surprised by how polite the kids are. They all say please and thank you, and when they don't their parents remind them to. For the most part they are always accompanied by adults or older kids, and there are very few costumeless teenagers accosting me for candy. In fact, the teenagers all at the very least make the effort of wearing a plastic mask from the local pharmacy, which is nice. I expect that many of them can't really afford anything more, and perhaps lack the imagination to come up with something creative as a costume. So they get points for effort and a handful of candy.

I really hope that this year I'll be able to find regular candy. Last year I had a dickens of a time finding anything other than those mini chocolate bars, which I don't think are all that great as Hallowe'en candy. I mean, kids can get chocolate bars year-round. Hallowe'en is about candy: toffee, those red-and-white striped mints, licorice (*shudder*), toffee, fruit candies, lollipops, all that good stuff that'll rot your teeth.

There will be good food, good company, roasted pumpkin seeds, and possibly some games. I will have to find a moment to head out to Valet de Coeur and pick up some games for us to play, for at the moment I have none. I have a couple of packs of cards, though, so at worst that will see us through.

I am ridiculously excited about Hallowe'en this year. Dunno why. Maybe it's because this year I am entirely in control of how it will all play out, not that I didn't have fun before. I think I'm just a control freak by nature. :)

Comments

[bodhifox.livejournal.com]

Chocolate! Halloween is about those little bars. Trust me, I'm a Dad with a capital *D*...

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Meh. They smack of cheating and Not Real Hallowe'en to me. Everyone else will be handing them out, so I'm going to provide lollipops.

Just so long as I'm not handing out samples of toothbrushes and toothpaste, I figure I'm good. ;)

[joane.livejournal.com]

CHOCOLATE! Hallowe'en is all about those little candy bars. I still remember with the wide-eyed glee of childhood the year that one house in our neighborhood gave out full. sized. CARAMILKS. It was glory.

Mind you, anything was good as long as it wasn't black licorice or those horrific little hallowe'en candy corns. Does anyone even eat those, or do they just get recycled year after year, like Christmas fruitcakes?

[ladyiolanthe.livejournal.com]

Chocolate or better yet, little potato chip bags! I always loved getting potato chips the *best* because we only had them on Very Special Occasions like birthday parties when I was a kid. Or when we visited Grandma.

The lollipops were always the last to go, and more often than not I collected them from my brother and sister and they were turned into stained glass cookie because no one wanted to suck their mouths raw on lillipops.

But you know what? Everyone has their own ideas of what the best Halloween treat is - so go crazy!

(And yes, joane I *looove* candy corn. I used to buy it in bulk in Junior High and pig out on it. ^-^)

[pasley.livejournal.com]

Ditto re. the mini chocolate bars! Kids prize those in their bags above all other treats. They are special because of their mini size, which kids find very kewl. In fact, most kids view the sorts of candies you're describing as the crappy sort of stuff that they set aside to trade for the chocolate. Trust me on this one.

I caved and bought candy corn several weeks ago. It's all gone, now, of course, which means I may have to buy more!

[karine.livejournal.com]

I did my candy shopping at Wal Mart and found several types of lollipops, those caramel cubes, the chocolate bars, the fruit-jelly filled hard candies, mini bags of chips and cheetos, popeye cigarettes (which aren't popeye or cigarettes anymore), and the marshmallow or jelly pumpkins there. I saw they have other stuff but limited my browsing because I didn't want to be stuck with it in the end, so I only got stuff I knew I'd eat.

IGA also has a biggish selection, from what I saw yesterday.

[taxlady.livejournal.com]

If anyones parents are like mine, give 'em chocolate bars. Halloween was one of the few times a year we were allowed to eat candy. And we could only keep some of the trick or treat candy. When we were little we ate the lollipops and candy corn. After a little experience, those were not the candies we chose to keep. Chocolate bars were really appreciated.

[dizietsma.livejournal.com]

Ahh yes pumpkins, I'm still thinking what to do this year for mine. Last year's were popular and I have to somehow better them:

http://dizietsma.livejournal.com/197329.html
http://dizietsma.livejournal.com/197407.html