A little about Halloween....

Halloween is not my favorite holiday. I stopped trick-or-treating in the sixth grade I believe. I had a really bad experience. I was a tall and big kid. Several people had commented on how they thought I was too old to be ringing their doorbells. One of the neighbor's on our street (this is when I lived in Albuquerque with my dad) took it a little too far though. He actually yelled at me and told me I should be ashamed of myself. If my parents had been around they probably would of yelled at him for his indiscretion. In this case though I was the glorified baby sitter. My dad and step-mom were at home. I cried all the way home. My pseudo sisters saw everything but when we got home it was all about the candy. I tried to tell my dad, but no one cared. It scarred me. I have never really felt the same about Halloween since.

When I met Michael he told me his favorite holiday was Halloween. I didn't understand why, but I went with it. The first couple of years we didn't celebrate it because we had no money. After that we tried to hand out candy, but there aren't too many trick-or-treaters in apartment complexes. It was the same growing up with my mom. We always lived in apartments so I just never had the same Halloween experience that Michael had. My conclusion is that if I had experienced that perhaps I would enjoy it more.

Halloween 2003 was the first year we celebrated it. I was very reluctant. We went to a party. It was o.k., but nothing special. Michael won best costume and received a $20 gift card from Best Buy. That was probably the coolest thing. Oh, in case you are wondering we went as good and evil. He was good. I don't know how that happened. Everyone thought he was Moses or Father Time though. Anyway, the experience was not a disaster.

This year we got an invite to another party. We agreed to go, but I ended up having to work. I was kind of disappointed, not for myself but for Michael. The party was held on Saturday night, so we still had Halloween to do up right. So Saturday night I stole a pumpkin from the farm and brought it home. I thought Michael and I should try and make new memories of Halloween. It is our first year in our house, what better excuse could we have? Sunday morning we got up and I made breakfast (which I almost never do). We decided on a design for our pumpkin. I took before and after pictures. Michael carved and I scooped. Later in the day I decided that we should have some scary music. We spent a while mixing a scary cd. I was really starting to get into the spirit of things. I just knew we would have a ton of kids coming by.

About dusk Michael grilled out my kick ass chicken. We were just sitting down to eat and the doorbell rang. Michael slipped on this crazy wig and the fun began. After a while we were opening the door so much we decided to sit outside. It was a really great experience. I saw the cutest costume. This little girl came as a chicken. It was one of those blow up chickens. I could just imagine her excitement as her dad hooked her up to his air compressor. We handed out candy until we almost ran out. We gave a few extra pieces to the big kids.

I wonder how old is too old to trick-or-treat? No matter what the answer, I guess you're never too old for Halloween. :)