Halloween, Finally

The middle of the month already and I haven't written a thing.  This has to be by far the longest stretch I've gone without posting.  While I could type a list of excuses a mile long, let's just say life's been happening and I'll do my best to play catch-up when I can.  So, Halloween...

We took Punky to the mall for trick-or-treating.  It seemed like a great idea.  Early evening.  Safe.  Warm.  And the first twenty minutes were great.  Then, in the blink of an eye, kids seemed to spew from every crack and crevice.  It was a sea of super heroes, princesses, clowns, and cartoon characters.  A continuous chain of kids lined the perimeter of the mall, all waiting to reach the one person in front of each store handing out pieces of candy.  And store coupons.  And garage band CD's - yes, seriously, Punky got one.

It didn't take long for the calm, safe, warm environment to morph into a noisy, chaotic scene.  And damn, was it hot in there.  Some kids were whining, some were yelling, and some had complete meltdowns.  Parents were cranky and losing their patience.  Stores were quickly running out of candy.  It took forever to make our way back to the entrance where we started so we could get the hell out of there.

While it wasn't an overwhelmingly pleasant experience for us, Punky seemed to enjoy it.  She insisted on wearing her Elmo costume the entire ride in the car...thirty five minutes each way.  She toted her plastic pumpkin and held it up to receive her treats.  She liked seeing all the different costumes, though the scary ones freaked her out a bit.  She ate a few pieces of candy but didn't seem all that impressed and she hasn't asked to have any more.  That's definitely not a bad thing.

We made it home from the mall just in time to turn on the porch light and welcome trick-or-treaters.  Over the course of the next two hours, a whopping eight kids popped in for some candy.  Well, we beat last year's total by one.  A big bowl of leftover candy sits on the kitchen counter.  We'll continue to pick through the good stuff little by little and end up tossing the rest.

It's no secret that I'm not a fan of Halloween and it's apparent in the tone of this post.  So, for Punky's sake, I have to end on a high note.  Here's a shot of my little red monster making the rounds at the mall.  She was so proud to be Elmo, and she couldn't have been more adorable.