Crunch Time



Avery as a box of popcorn...guess who made
this costume?

It is nine days until Halloween. In years past we would be frantically working on final touches of costumes. This year however, (nine days before Halloween) nothing has been mentioned about costumes. It used to be the day after Halloween, one of my children would be talking about their plan for the costume for the next year. This year there has been little discussion about costumes, or even Halloween. As a matter of fact, there has been no discussion about pumpkin carving either or even Halloween candy to hand out.
 The only thing I know for sure is that my youngest says she is trick or treating and my middle child says she is not. At least they get a choice. When my oldest was in ninth grade I put the kibosh on Trick or Treating. I told my lovely daughter that she was too old and that was that, no trick or treating, but, she could hand out the candy while Dad and I took the younger kids trick or treating. I am sure she was thinking "Gee thanks, Mom…if that's your real name!" In my defense, at the time I was fed up with the "kids" that came to the door that you knew were in college or my personal favorite the kids that came to the door smoking a cigarette. I always wanted to caution them not to let the cigarette get too close to the pillowcase full of candy. What a sweet fire that would be! I guess I thought by keeping my oldest home, I was doing my part to keep the Trick or Treating on the up and up. Now I find myself missing the hubbub a little. I am pining for a little Halloween frenzy.

 I bought a pumpkin and some cornstalks a couple weeks ago just to jazz up my front porch and give the illusion to our neighbors that we are on our Halloween game. I even bought Halloween candy a couple of days ago and hid it away for safe keeping. I had to hide it; I do not want any preholiday sneaking of treats. I however, did open one of the bags and try a piece just to make sure the candy was fresh (wink, wink) you just cannot take any chances with Halloween candy. So far though, everything that has been done has been done by me and thought of by me. No one else here is even slightly interested. Granted, the last couple of weeks were mainly Homecoming oriented, (I would like to clock the person that scheduled Homecoming so bloody late!) and when you are focused on Homecoming floats, dresses, games and dances, there is not a lot of room for the foolishness of Halloween. That being said, I am bracing myself for next week when it hits my lovely family that we better carve our pumpkins and cook their seeds. Avery will probably decide at that point that we need to ramp it up and get a costume idea. That is when I will pull out my Halloween bin and hand her my back up witch hat and cape!

 Things are changing fast now that my last two are both in high school. All the traditions and activities that made each holiday special when the girls were younger are losing their luster. Slowly, my house is turning into the sad non holiday house on the block. Attention here is focused on school and friends, homework and hanging out, not on holidays. How sad is that? I am doing my best to keep some of the traditions alive, but to be honest; I do not miss some of the stress and worry about costumes and school parties. I also really like that I can send my kids out with their friends to trick or treat. However, I cannot help feeling like any day now I am going to be faced with Halloween crunch time and I am not looking forward to that at all!