My First Trick-Or-Treat

Well, obviously I've lived through Trick or Treating's throughout my lifetime. But I've never participated in one until now.

I was raised without Trick or Treating for two reasons: we lived in a rural area where kids didn't come to your house even if you wanted them to, and we didn't believe in celebrating Holloween because of it's pretense of Evil.

So this is the first time I've gone door to doorstep and asked for candy. Well, actually, Pumpkin asked for candy. But I took her!

Last year I sat at our doorway waiting for the first costumed child to walk up our porch steps. And when it was 2 minutes past 7:00 I panicked and began to cry because no one could tell our porch light was on since it was still light out. But only seconds later I nervously handed our first patron their prized sweets. And we were out of our two bags of Snickers 10 minutes later (turns out over 500 kids showed up last year here - out neighbors across the street go ALL OUT for Halloween and draw quite a crowd.)

Anyway, this year Pumpkin had seen enough on cartoons and TV to know the gist of it, and she's so not shy anymore!, that I knew I wanted to take her. Rugger stayed home with Boom to pass out candy since he wouldn't get into it and he's running a fever right now.

Anyway, we put the bunny suit that her Grandma (MIL) got her last year, and I even painted her face white with a pink nose (she like the nose) and black whiskers. She smeared it twice before we even left the house, but it was worth it anyway.

As we walked from house to house, I felt sort of shy and new at the same time. Everyone commented on my little bunny and how cute she was. She was great at saying "Trick or Treat" and "Thank You." And half and hour later she was ready to go home ;) Little feet can only walk so far, it seems. If she had had her cousin running around with her, it might have been a different story, but his grandparents are in Warren, and so he wasn't with us.

I also felt a bit guilty. Part of me knows there are Christians who are very much against Trick or Treating. I used to be one of them. I'm still not completely sure what is okay or not. But I like the idea of dressing up, and getting candy isn't so bad, either. I know there are evil roots behind the tradition, and I'm still not into the ghouls or goblins, witches or ghosts, corpses and blood.

But I felt like tonight I took part in a tradition that most Americans have been celebrating for generations. I felt part of our neighborhood. I relished sitting on the porch with our Jack-O-Lanterns lit and Boom's students coming to say "hi." I enjoyed seeing neighbors and strangers all being polite and smiling at each other's costumes.

I had fun. And for me, tonight, that's all that matters.