Is it too early to put up the Christmas decorations? According to everyone in my house, YES IT IS ARE YOU INSANE? However, just as retailers used to be before they started putting up festive trees in July, the second the pumpkins go into the compost I start thinking about Christmas. Well, technically before that because my shopping is three-quarters done, and I did sneak out and buy a few new decorations when I was supposed to be buying a birthday card for my mother-in-law. I also have been planning my Sears Catalogue Wish Book post since the end of August, when I picked it up.
I’m getting ahead of myself – how was Halloween? On Thursday I was volunteering in Jake’s class to carve pumpkins. Since I had volunteered in Mark’s class the week before, I considered myself an expert. I brought in my husband’s drywall knife and was applauded by all since I cut all the pumpkin tops off in less than five minutes. Seriously, people. Drywall knives are the way of the Halloween future. There was no school on Friday and so the class was all dressed up, and I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a class full of costumed third and fourth graders excited about Halloween and pumpkins, but it wasn’t exactly a relaxing afternoon.
Yesterday was a very long day. It was a PD day, and a PD day with the prospect of Trick or Treating is a long day indeed. I did what I could; I took the boys to Colour Me Mine, a pottery painting studio, and I watched the very excellent Phineas and Ferb movie, Night of the Living Pharmacists with them, but that still left a lot of day to kill, especially since my husband did not get home from work until almost six-thirty, when the children were pretty much insane with excitement. Since I am the not-fun parent, my husband takes the kids to Trick or Treat, while I stay at home to hand out candy. We had a record number of thirteen Trick or Treaters, including an adorable barely-walking pumpkin and two tiny Elsas. This also includes two girls from Mark’s class who asked if Mark was there or if he was Trick or Treating somewhere in the neighbourhood? Complete with giggles and batting eyelashes. We have reached a new era!
My parents have officially moved, and are now no longer ten minutes away from me. The upshot of this is that while they were cleaning and packing their old house, they came across four storage boxes with my name on it. I’ve been slowly going through them, and wondering what to do with the contents. The contents themselves are worthy of a whole series of posts; my husband has dubbed them “Nicole’s Childhood Boxes of Terror”. I don’t want to give too much away but here is a preview:
The baby wants to cuddle.
How’s THAT for a scary Halloween post?
That is a scary doll. I am also the not-fun, stay-home-with-the-candy parent.
Okay, the doll has to go in the donation bin. Frightening.
We’ve never had enough trick or treaters before to warrant one of us staying home – we both love going out with the kids, so we’ve always just left a bowl on our front doorstep with a note saying “take one bag, please, happy Halloween!” This is not unusual here and we’ve never been ripped off.
But this year! This year we had THIRTY people come to the door. Even after we’d turned out the lights because we ran out of candy they were still coming. So next year we need to buy more candy, and one of us will have to stay home.
Talk about a bloodbath? Drywall knives will not fix the “who has to sit home with the doorbell and the barking dog all night” problem.
OR WILL THEY??? 😉
The doll needs to go into a FIERY FURNACE, what the hell is Catherine talking about, you can only DONATE THAT DOLL TO HELL.
I kind of hate being the trick-or-treating parent AND the stay-at-home parent – I love the idea of Halloween but somehow in practice it fires all my anxiety neurons. We’ve let Eve go with her best friend and a crowd of crazy Greeks the past couple of years, but this year I realized she might not be doing it much longer so I tagged along. It was kind of fun, the girls don’t need much supervision anymore, I like seeing the decorations and I realized I’d probably picked the wrong option being the stay-at-home parent the past couple of years. (“Again? I JUST SAT DOWN!’ Expletive!)
Oh, and Nicole, it IS too early.
Umm, yes, too early.
Now I am panicking.
Thanks for that. 🙂
I’m going to have nightmares about the doll! Eeee.
And yah, gotta agree with everyone else. TOO EARLY!