Tuesday, November 3, 2009

We didn't get booed this year

Halloween came and went. I hid the bags of candy and set the pumpkins on our front steps weeks ahead of the big day. We lit our strings of purple and orange lights and set out the fake tombstones. I dangled the spooky bones over our front porch to "scare" trick or treaters as they approached our house.

Our neighbors did the best decorating job in the neighborhood, complete with boarded up windows, a fog machine, a fake police tape and a chainsaw criminal and a bloodied victim. It was not exactly scary, because Terri and Jeff are just to nice to scare anyone, and their kids are young enough to remind them that Halloween is about fun. But it was very, very cool, and I'm sure our street had extra visitors that night just to see the best haunted house around. I hope they do that every year.

Halloween was different for us this year. My son got an awesome ape costume that I'm sure we'll be lending out constantly. My kids went to parties and watched scary movies. They raided the candy I'd hidden, but this was the first year I had no trick or treaters of my own. No raiding THEIR candy after they went off to bed. No Ziploc bags of Halloween candy for weeks and months to come. No bartering when they got back home or counting the amount of candy in their stashes. No comparing which houses and neighborhoods had the best stuff. Just a few leftover pieces of candy and a dirty ape costume.

Probably one of the things I miss most about Halloween for us is the "boo bags" that we don't get anymore. I remember sneaking up to neighbors' houses and wondering if they would realize it was the Auslanders that left them with a basket full of candy, fake witch fingertips, or Halloween pencils. I loved seeing my kids' faces when they realized someone had left us with a plate of cookies or the pre-Halloween candy they could split up and sneak into their bag lunches the next day.

As I drive down my street each day at this time of year, I notice houses with the tell tale cut out ghosts in their windows. I am sad that my kids are past that stage and even though it was a chore to run out and put those boo baskets together, I miss the excitement younger children share with us when it comes to special holiday traditions. Being in Europe for five of our Halloweens made us long even more for things that only happen in America on a particularly American holiday. Sometimes you really don't miss things until you don't have them anymore.

Last night, Anna had the cookie cookbooks out. She is busy, planning our Christmas cookie list. Even though I didn't sew any Wizard of Oz costumes or buy any masks or even carve the pumpkins I bought, Halloween was here, and we were able to see all of the neighborhood kids, so proud of their alter egos for the night. And even though we didn't get booed, I know that my family loves its traditions, and we'll be baking cookies before long. I may be sad that some things have changed, but I'm very, very thankful that some have stayed wonderfully the same.

No comments:

Post a Comment