Showing posts with label halloween. Show all posts
Showing posts with label halloween. Show all posts

Monday, November 5, 2007

Halloween 2007




I don’t like Halloween! I can’t find anything GREAT about it. There is nothing fun about spending $25 plus on a silly costume that either gets ripped apart before it’s time to go Trick-or-Treating or they never touch it again after Trick-or-Treating. I don’t think the decorations are appropriate for young kids! Walking into Party City can give any child nightmares!! I don’t want to explain to my kids why there are blood and bones hanging from the ceiling nor do I want to explain why I am covering their eyes when looking at adult costumes! A trip to Party City puts more into my child’s head than watching a a rated R movie!! Who needs that?

Now that it is clear that I am the scrooge of Halloween let me tell you how it all went down for the Hobi kids, ages 6, 4, and 2.

In SEPTEMBER I bought the costumes!! Not because I was anxious for the wonderful nightmare to begin but because I have been searching for Power Ranger costumes for Jarom and Jennica to dress up in. So, one afternoon, in late September, I noticed Party City had Halloween costumes out. They had Power Rangers, and I knew they would be a hot item, so I purchased them right away.
Then I came across the cutest Witch costume for Jen. She LOVED it. She wanted to sleep in it! She wanted to wear it every- where. Once she got home from school, her school clothes were off and this Witch dress went on! I was so happy to have found a costume that was such a hit. I figured I’d get all the miles I could off this dress.

As October is nearing an end, I realize no one has said a thing about Halloween! They are still dressing up in the costumes but it didn’t seem to me that they thought the costumes were directly related to this silly event about to take place. (Where you cover these expensive costumes with coats, because it’s freezing outside, and go door to door getting candy from STRANGERS on a school night!)

My scrooge mind gets thinking, “Maybe we can get away without going Trick-or-Treaing!” After all it’s a school night and I DON’T WANT MY KIDS TO HAVE ALL THAT CANDY!!! I went as far as declining Trick-or-Treating invitations from several friends on the account that we weren’t going out that night.

Well, the day before Halloween Jarom came home from school excited as all get out, because he gets to dress up at school the next day! Then he asks, bright eyed and bushy tailed: “Mom, are we going Trick-or-Treating tomorrow?”
It wasn’t really a question. He asked with complete confidence that it was happening.
I casually said, “No Jarom, it’s a school night. You’ll get to dress up with your friends at school.”
And that was that. He didn’t say anything else. I thought I was getting away with it!
It wasn’t until dad came home that I heard Jarom telling him how unfair it was. So, I was the mean mom and Jarom passed the news to Jennica and they went to bed upset that they were being robbed of Halloween.

Halloween morning came as any normal morning does. I didn’t color their pancakes orange, or create any spooky fun at all. Jarom headed to school with his Power Ranger costume in his backpack ready to soak up all the Halloween joy he could before returning home.

I took the other kids to the school to watch him in the Halloween parade and while we were there a few more of my friends asked what our Trick-or-Treating plans were.
It wasn’t till I heard how excited they were about their kids going that I began to see how scroogy I had become.
One friend laughed when I told her I was hoping to let it all pass by.
She asked, ”What’s next Ember, There’s no such thing as Santa Clause?”
Now, that was funny! I needed to hear that.
So now, here it is mid-day on Halloween and I’m back peddling. Wishing I had put more effort into enjoying this crazy day instead of ignoring it. Why couldn’t I have thought about making orange pancakes, or colored my hair crazy that day? I could have had some good laughs with the kids!!
I quickly find out what street his best friend was planning to attack and the time and decided to live a little.

The kids were so excited about going they were jumping around and doing almost ANYTHING I asked of them. So, we dressed up and went out! (Jennica did NOT want to wear the witch dress during this event. Go Figure!)

I am so glad we went! I had so much fun seeing them and all the other kids so excited. We had a great time. Even little Jace loved the concept of walking door to door to get CANDY.
The first door we went to he said Trick or Treat and took the candy and said thank you. We walked back to the street and headed to the next door. His smile got bigger. Once we moved to the third door he looked up at me and said in surprise “More candy again?”

The best part of the night was when I approached a door just as Jennica and Jarom were leaving. Jen looked up at me with deep concern.
“Mom, throw this in the trees!” She said as she handed me her candy (AirHead) she just got.
“What? Why?” I asked getting a little nervous. The paranoid mother kicked in and I had thoughts of poisoned candy and mean tricks. And by the look on her face I could tell she was really serious. She looked me right in the eyes and said matter-a-fact: “Mom, if I eat this candy my head will blow up like a balloon and I’ll float away! That’s what I saw on the commercial. Throw it in the trees!”
First I gave her a big hug because I could tell she felt insecure about her possession of that candy,
Then I tried really hard not to laugh so much about it. After getting rid of the AirHead and a few reassuring hugs she was off again.
Of course the next day they were rummaging through their goods and Jen came across the Air Head. She couldn’t stand to even touch it! She shooed it away like it was a mouse. It was so cute to see her respond this way. It took some time to convince her it was just candy. I finally got her to hold it then I took a picture. (picture attached) I convinced her to eat it but with the condition that I would hold her feet down so she wouldn’t fly away. As you can imagine, I had some fun with that!!
Next year will be different. I won’t try to avoid it all....I will probably dress up as the true Witch that I am!!