Halloween Expectations and Surprises

Now that we have a 3-year-old, Halloween is a more important holiday than it was when Kevin and I were both tired college students wearing our clothes backwards to the ward Halloween party. Now, costumes matter, and having enough candy matters, and carving pumpkins matters.

So we treated it like a real holiday!

Of course, things don't always go to plan, and sometimes it was funny to see the disconnect between things I considered doing and things that actually happened. For example . . .

• Costumes: We've known for forever that Joseph would be Buzz Lightyear for Halloween (although Superman was a close second), especially when my friend told me she found a Buzz costume at the thrift store. Once we had that, I considered doing a Toy Story theme. Matthew could be Rex/Slinky/one of Bo Peep's sheep/almost anything, really, I could be Bo Peep (although my most suitable dress is yellow, not pink, and I didn't have a bonnet), and Kevin could be Woody. But then reality came to town, and I realized that I didn't really want to buy a yellow shirt and cow vest and whatnot for Kevin or find a bonnet or crook for myself. And I didn't want to spend money on a costume for Matthew. So Kevin and I decided to just not dress up, and I had Matthew be a pumpkin with a homemade hat for the stem. And it was all still cute.

We bought a purple jacket to look like Buzz's hood thing.  Also, he's been wearing this costume regularly since General Conference but I never took pictures til Halloween.

I put the jack-o-lantern face on the back of his jacket and he wore it around backwards, which made sense until we were carrying him and all people saw was the moose that was supposed to be on the front.

• Phantom Doorbell Ditching: Who doesn't love getting doorbell ditched with a cute phantom bearing treats and a poem and an invitation to pass it along? I thought it would be fun to do it but instead of leaving treats leave a creepy toy like the Lamaze giraffe with the glow-in-the-dark belly we gifted some people last year after they gave us a gnome. But we never found the right toy, and we would have had to be careful to pick people with the right sense of humor. So, not this year.
  
• Pumpkins: We figured we ought to carve pumpkins this year, and we finally found some time Thursday night to do it. The carving went well -- I did Superman, Kevin did pi, Joseph painted his, and then Kevin carved Batman on his as well because Joseph really wanted it and the 4th pumpkin was already rotting.

We figured they'd look better lit up for Halloween night, so Kevin ran to the store to look for candles. They were out, so he opted for number birthday candles instead. To our dismay, they didn't have as much wick as they suggested, so when trick-or-treaters came all they saw were dark pumpkins.

Like this, only both the pumpkins and the world were dark.

We were also not terribly surprised when nearby rodents chewed on the pumpkins, but we were surprised when a rodent started looking for more pumpkins to chew on IN OUR HOUSE!!! Yechhhh. Good thing my yelp scared that chipmunk or mouse or whatever right back outside. That's the last time we ever leave the door open. (Actually, as I was writing this, Joseph walked in and left the door open. It's closed now.)

• Candy: It's always a surprise to see how much candy costs. This holiday must have been invented by Hershey or Nestle. We were pleasantly surprised that we bought too much and got to return a bag. And it's been a surprise how much I like it, and how good the Twix tasted.
  
• Decorations: I had no expectations with the decorations. I forgot about putting them up until October 30th. At least the pumpkin ones should still work as Thanksgiving decorations, right?
  
• Trick-or-treating: Since we've done it the past few years, I decided to go downtown in the day to go trick-or-treating. It took a lot longer than expected to get out of the house, but Joseph and Matthew and I finally made it out with the double stroller, baby carrier, keys, cell phone, camera, Kindle (for a map), candy bag, snack, water bottle, burp rag, diapers, wipes, and purse. And the goal to lose none of that.

• I headed to the bus stop with Matthew in the carrier and Joseph in the double stroller. Once we were to the bus stop, I began to fold up the double stroller (hence the baby carrier) and planned to get me, Matthew, the overloaded purse, Joseph, and the stroller on. I've done it before, but it doesn't mean it wasn't a completely crazy idea. Luckily, a friend showed up, and he helped me get the stroller on and off the bus. After the stroller was reassembled, we started heading downtown. I noticed as we were crossing a street that the drawstring for Joseph's candy bag was starting to get wrapped around a wheel, so once we were on the sidewalk I spent about 3 minutes unwinding it (it was horribly tangled, turns out), providing commentary such as, "I wish I could just cut this off." "Welp, I think I've just got to finish what I've started," and other stuff while students walked around us, pretending not to notice. After that, I checked the time. 11:50??? I then realized I was starving, so I changed directions and walked toward the Institute where I knew a free lunch was waiting. On the way, we got the occasional cursory glance from students not used to seeing Buzz costumes.
  
  Like the grasshoppers in Bug's Life, I came, ate, and left for downtown. We ran into several friends downtown doing the same thing -- going into the shops on Main Street and other nearby streets for candy. Joseph was a solemn Buzz, quietly saying "trick or treat" and "thank you" when prompted. We then headed back to the bus stop, where I was again lucky enough to find someone in the ward I trusted to hold my baby while I folded the stroller up.

And he even took a picture of us!

After that 3+ mile walk for candy, you might think that was enough adventure/candy for the day, but you'd be wrong! A few hours later we headed to the ward trunk or treat, but we were late enough that we had to park in the boonies so we wouldn't run over anyone. 

Joseph came home with another bag full of candy which I promptly got to work eating (we had come to an agreement that this was "family candy"), and prepared for the next big day of candy acquisition -- Halloween itself.

Before trick-or-treating started, all the families in Northwood gathered for a parade. It was the kind of parade where everyone marches, so you really appreciate the costumes right in front of you, and not really any others. But still fun.

Buzz is also a ninja.

After the parade, we hurried and lit the jack-o-lanterns, prepared the candy, and then I sent Kevin and Joseph off. Kevin decided to take my suggestion to go to the big houses nearby. I figured they would have good candy and they would like seeing a cute little kid.

Which was true for the houses that were lit up . . . but not many of those houses were actually lit up. I can't imagine that all of them were out of town, so maybe it's just a bunch of dentists living there, hiding downstairs in the dark watching Netflix and congratulating themselves on protecting the children from a few more grams of sugar. Seems plausible.

Meanwhile, I handed out candy. We had already returned a bag, so I was surprised by how much candy was left, and I felt a little bad for only giving out one piece. Kevin and Joseph returned not too cold and wet from trick-or-treating in the rain. Not with tons of candy, but after 3 trick-or-treating trips we didn't really need much. Or any, really.

Luckily, at the rate we're going, we'll be done with it soon enough.

Haunted bedroom

As I've mentioned before, Halloween is one of those holidays that matters less and less to me each year. I think that will change as Joseph gets more excited about it, but for now it's still one which is more annoying than fun what with rounding up costumes and buying candy, which is surprisingly expensive. (It's also a little discouraging . . . I thought Tootsie Rolls would be a safe candy for me to buy, but it turns out I like them a lot better than I should.)

But there was one year where I really got into Halloween. I decided that my bedroom needed a haunted house theme. Since my bedroom was in the basement, it always had a sort of haunted house feel to it anyway -- you never knew if the blouse you tossed carelessly on the ground would have a wolf spider attached to it the next time you picked it up. But this year I wanted it to be really haunted. I had glorious plans for the decorations, the thrills, and the chills that would await any who dared enter.

I got started immediately, gathering construction paper and hunting down an empty boombox and tape cassette. When the rest of my family was elsewhere, I hurried and recorded myself screaming like a banshee for several seconds. I then propped up the boombox behind my door, attached an unsharpened pencil to my door via masking tape, and made it so that the pencil would hit the pause button whenever the door was open, unleashing my warbling fury on the world. After a bit of adjusting, it worked!

I then found a flesh-colored glove and filled it with water the best that I could. I stuck it in the freezer, preparing it for its life as the icy hand of death which would grab any intruders. I forgot about it for a while and busied myself cutting out construction paper pumpkins and witch silhouettes.

It was probably my dad who was the first to discover the terrors of my terrain. Instead of jumping when he heard my banshee cry, he just furrowed his brow for a moment, then peeked behind my door to see my little contraption. "This is cute," he probably said.

Over the next few weeks, there really weren't that many people who came into my bedroom. My siblings had some fun at first opening and closing my door to get the pause button to compress and release, making the screaming come in brief spurts. But that got old, and soon I was the only one to enter my room and hear the screams. And to be honest, it got kind of annoying. But I had to keep it there on principle. It was for Halloween, after all.

Thankfully, Halloween eventually came, and down came the decorations and banshee screaming. Time to decorate for Christmas.

A few months later, while I was sitting on my bed doing homework, my dad came in waving something hideous and icy. "Did you want this for anything? I found it in the freezer."

Come to think of it, I don't know how that icy hand of death would have fared in my bedroom anyway.

Since it's Halloween . . .

I'll be honest -- I haven't been a huge fan of Halloween this year. The Halloween decorations came up about 1 hour before company arrived, I only bought enough candy to feed 2 or 3 trick-or-treaters (since I'm not eating candy this year, there's little point in buying a lot of it), and it was only in the hour before the ward party that I actually decided to wear a costume, which consisted of normal clothes anyway. Call me a scrooge, a grinch . . . I don't really care. Those are Christmas terms, anyway.

Despite my lack of holiday cheer, I still get excited for Halloween every year for one reason: Pop Rocks. Time to quote it to whoever happens to be in earshot (read: Kevin).

Since I have a blog, and since today is is the 7th anniversary of the poem's inception, I decided to share it with you, too. Enjoy!

The Pop Rocks

(Based on Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”)

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I wandered weak and weary,

Over a many snow-capped lanes, wondering what’d be my last remains,

While I trudged the treacherous trail, hoping my searchings wouldn’t fail,

Walking through the sleet and hail, hail that through the head would bore,

Suddenly, I reached a door, and opened it, and did implore,

“D’you have candy? I need more!”

Ah, so vaguely, I remember, it was not in bleak December

But Hallow’s Eve, I trick-or-treated asking for the junk I needed

Eagerly in sly disguise, I begged from basement to high rise

The craving was so very strong that I would burst out into song,

And I would sing with vim and vigor, as I went from door to door,

“I need Pop Rocks, nothing more.”

Kisses, Starbursts, Bertie Botts, Rollos, Twizzlers, suckers, Dots

Laffy Taffys, jelly beans, in colors yellow, pink, and green,

Skittles, Milky Ways, and Twix, M&Ms and Pixi Stix

Mints and Tootsie Rolls and Snickers, Crunches, Reeses, scarecrow stickers,

But not the candy I loved best, not anywhere from door to door

Were there Pop Rocks anymore.

The night was long, and I was tired, but dreams of Pop Rocks kept me wired

Though ice had formed on every hair and my jacket was threadbare

And all my fingers were near frostbite and they’d turned off every streetlight

And my hands would not stop shaking and truly, I thought of forsaking!

But I knew I had to find them, though my body was so sore.

Weren't Pop Rocks still in a store?

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,

I had to find them, or I’d die! -- so I looked with searching eye,

I knocked at every single dwelling, I’d ask all people, nearly yelling.

I’d rant and rave and make them wish they all had Pop Rocks in a dish.

But no one had them anymore, so I would long for days of yore

When I could get Pop Rocks galore.

My body weak, my spirit low, yet wishfully on I did go.

Determined I went on . . . but lo! Look at all those feet of snow!

I then ran home, so fast I ran: Life would be hard as a snowman

So into home I went to stay, then got online onto eBay

And typed in ‘Pop Rocks,’ sat, sat more, till came a phrase I hoped not for:

“This candy is sold nevermore.”

“Thing of evil!” I proclaimed. “Pop Rocks. Inc should be ashamed.

Depriving me of what I crave will surely lead to something grave.

The candy made was so exquisite that all the world must surely miss it.”

With that, I typed again the name, but the message was the same:

“This candy is sold nevermore.” Yes, that it said; it made me roar!

“This candy is sold nevermore.”

I typed in ‘Pop Rocks’ once again; there was a buzz and beep, and then

It said, “Your reference isn’t found. We’ll find it, though, so stick around.”

And, I am waiting, never flitting, still am sitting, still am sitting

Until the blessed, joyful day when Pop Rocks will be here–hooray!.

I’ll order thousands, tons galore! but seeing as they’re not in store,

I’ll stay here, moving nevermore.