Halloween Aftermath

Lincoln just got home with Jake and Hannah from their Halloween outing. I guess they had a very successful night although they had to venture onto a street they don't usually go down because a lot of houses on their usual route were dark this year. Lincoln said they had to have walked about 2 miles. Jake came home absolutely exhausted. While Lincoln and Hannah sat on the floor and sorted their loot into piles Jake crashed on the arm of the couch. It was too cute for words.

Happy Halloween

Despite the fact that it has snowed not once but twice so far this October we were very lucky to have beautiful weather for Halloween this year. It was in the high 60's - if not actually 70 degrees - but very windy. The kids were able to wear their costumes without layering up too much. Hannah put a long sleeve shirt under her Raggedy Ann dress and Jake wore long pants and a long-sleeved shirt under his Rebel Fighter Pilot costume.

Lincoln took the kids over to Hopedale with the other Diane Snow and his niece Kayla. I stayed home because I'm still under the weather and fighting this horrible cold. At least my voice is almost back to normal.

She has never met a video camera she doesn't like

Halloween - NOT my favorite holiday

Halloween is my least favorite holiday for a number of reasons.

1. I bore easily. I keep a magazine on the front seat of my car for long stoplights. Walking from house to house to hear the same "Trick or Treat", "Thank you" over and over and over again just doesn't do it for me. And it's hard for me to read in the dark much less while walking so that's not an option.
2. I'm lazy and walking from house to house doesn't do it for me. Driving from driveway to driveway makes you look like an idiot and, going back to the laziness portion of this complaint, it's just as big of a pain in the ass to get in the car, get out of the car, get in the car, get out of the car, get in the car, get out of the car.
3. I prefer heat over cold. While we've occasionally lucked out with warm Halloweens here in New England I don't particularly like walking around on a cold, damp night. And it drives me absolutely bonkers when you spend a fortune on a costume for the kids and they either have to layer it over sweats or cover it with their jacket.
4. I know a lot of kids go trick-or-treating through malls or in apartment complexes but really, that's just cheating. I know that it would wipe out some of my previous complaints but I really want my kids to have the true Halloween experience so the fake trick-or-treating through malls or on days other than October 31st just seems stupid to me. Halloween is Halloween and should be celebrated on Halloween in the universally accepted manner that as an adult I detest but as a child I loved. Yes, I can bitch about it both ways because it's my blog and I can bitch however I want to.
5. As for the cost of Halloween costumes....the costume Jake originally wanted for Halloween this year cost $69.99 BEFORE you bought the cool accessories that actually made the outfit what it was supposed to be. Absolutely not. I finally talked him into something else that cost half as much but that's still insane. They're only going to wear the damn thing once.
6. I also have absolutely no creativity on these things so I'm not going to make a costume for the kids and don't even get me started on grown-up Halloween parties. I have NO imagination in that department.
7. I hate pumpkins. While I enjoy eating baked pumpkin seeds I hate digging out pumpkins and I hate carving them. They're messy, slimy, tough to cut through, and usually they don't turn out the way I want them to look.
8. And last but not least, I don't look forward to spending two hours bartering with Jake to get him into the costume that HE picked out. Last year he cried and carried on and created quite the stink because he was scared of his Darth Vader costume. He had picked it out and was very excited about being Darth Vader but when it came down to it the thought of being in that costume freaked him out. He said he was scared of the person in the costume to which I replied "YOU are the person in the costume!!!"

So, my question to all of you is, what is the Halloween version of "Bah Humbug"?