Thursday, November 1, 2007

Halloween

Because of the "Halloween House" around the corner from us, we must have had at least 100 trick-or-treaters last night. Vans of kids are dropped off to look at the wonder around the corner and then they all go beg for candy on our block. It makes for a busy evening every year. We actually ran out of candy by 8:30 and had to blow out the jack-0-lantern, which was fine with me since by this point, all the kids who are probably too old to be trick-or-treating were coming out, literally howling and braying in the streets. Our block is a wild one on Halloween.

One thing I don't get though about the state of things today is parents who shell out large chunks of money for a costume their kid will wear once, or maybe twice. A friend last month was complaining about being stretched thin financially this year and not being able to afford Halloween costumes for her kids. Huh? When I was a kid, my mom had us dress up as zombies or hobos. These costumes cost almost nothing. Last night the most creative costume I saw was a kid wearing pajamas with red dots all over her face: chicken pox kid. It cost probably nothing and was really cute. And then, a friend of ours here in Portland has a kid who wanted to go as a "spy," so her costume was really cute and consisted of things laying around the house.

We were lucky last night to be visited by these guys, a niece and nephew who I thought were pretty cute:
I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween. I'll leave you with this video, which for whatever reason, gives me that silent, holding-my-sides, tear-inducing laughter. It has the best use of music in any stupid internet video I've found. Maybe it's that we grew up with a cat that did the same thing. I don't know. Maybe it's just me. Hope you enjoy:

And as an addendum: today as we drove past the Halloween House around the corner, we saw the owner out front taking down all the decorations, including the "low flying witch" on the streetlight. We stopped to chat and he told us that there were fewer kids than usual this year--"only around 1,200." So considering the amount they got, it's surprising that our street only got around 100 (my best guess--maybe it was more).

7 comments:

Rusty Spell said...

I love those $150 dollar adult costumes that are togas. It's much better than a white bedsheet.

Anonymous said...

thanks for the shout out to Pey about her spy costume. we've spent our fair share on halloween costumes in years past, but no more. now, it's dig in the dress up box and figure something out. : )

your street sounds great. we had lots of kids, but i've got tons of leftover candy. i need it out of this house!

Lori said...

RE: getting leftover candy out of the house--Real Simple suggests taking it to work to put in the communal treat bowl or even better, making little treat bags with ribbon and everything to hand out at an assisted living home (not just old folks).

Anonymous said...

i made the kids go through it tonight and pick out their favorite 15 pieces. the rest is going to our church's food pantry tomorrow. after I pick out a stash for myself...but literally we have two gallon size ziploc bags with extra candy. gross.

Jana said...

my mom used to have the "candy witch" come after Halloween. we put out our candy overnight, and the candy witch came and left us a present--like a toy or something. smart mama!

is that your front porch? *sigh* someday two teachers will have a house; someday.

Drew Carey Show said...

Okay, love the jack'o'lantern. Did you carve that? And even though I'm not a cat person (highly allergic), that was pretty funny. It struck me as entertaining when I was walking Rocky this evening that it's funny that we domesticate animals and let them live with us. I mean, really.

Lori said...

Yeah, we carved that cat-pumpkin (I drew it, carved some, and assigned the rest to Ted). Glad you like it. So glad someone else like the itchy-butt video. It never ceases to crack me up, nerd that I am.