Trick or Treat…Dude

As a child, I remember Halloween being one of the most exciting nights of the year.  Now my kids radiate that same kind of excitement.  At preschool this morning, Matthew told his teacher that he was going to use the force to get his pencil.  Daniel has been practicing different spells with his wand (he has a whole list of Harry Potter spells that he printed up from somewhere).  And Nathan has been wearing his costume for the past month.  They were all hyped up even before they got hopped up on sugar.

We are lucky enough to live in the kind of neighborhood where there are tons of kids and we feel safe roaming the neighborhood at night.  Daniel was out with a little pack of his friends and one of their moms and we all felt good about that.  Kev discovered that we live on one of the two streets in the neighborhood that attract the most trick or treaters.  There was pizza being made, hot dogs being grilled, and doughnuts being fried.  We have neighbors that know us and our kids well enough that they had special treats set aside for Matthew.  This is the kind of neighborhood I grew up in and I feel incredibly blessed that my kids can grow up in a place where we all have friends and feel safe.

While Harry Potter, Dumbledore (minus the beard because he didn’t like the feel of the little hairs in his mouth), and Yoda were thrilled to wander the neighborhood collecting loot, the chubby melon and I stayed home to answer the door.  (The tights are my favorite part of this costume.  I plan to put Malia in them as often as possible while they fit her.)  I only had one group try to hit me up for candy twice and only had a few kids show up who were (in my opinion, of course) far too old to be trick or treating.

At one point a group of fifth or sixth grade boys showed up at the door.  As I doled out candy with one hand and held Malia with the other, I heard one boy say to another, “Check out that baby, Dude!  It’s awesome!”  While I did get a chuckle out of this event (After the kids left, of course.  I don’t want to be known as the mean lady down the street who laughs at the little kids on Halloween.) and I appreciate the compliment to my offspring, I have to say that of all the things I would hope for my child to be, “awesome” is not exactly at the top of my list.  It’s not that I want her to be un-awesome, it’s just that in all the prayers I have uttered in her behalf, not once have I said, “…and please, please let her be awesome…”  However, as of today I can honestly say that I have offered up a few words of thanks for the fact that my children are more articulate than that. 

So in conclusion, Happy Halloween, Dude!  I hope the trick or treating was awesome!