SoapZone Community Message Board

1. The weather was better than expected. The wind was blowing a bit more than usual and the night was cool, but it wasn't chilly and it wasn't raining. Which lead to surprise #2...

2. We had less kids than we would normally get on a decent(ish) trick or treat night. Our average is around 50; in years when the weather is bad, we get around 30-35 kids and in years when the weather is good, we might get 65-70. I lost count but I think we got only 45, maybe 50 kids. And speaking of "kids"...

3. We got almost no teens this year. Most years, the high schoolers come out in packs. In the last few years, they've been really polite--as opposed to earlier years when they were mostly sullen and costume-less--so I don't mind. This year, I had, I think, only two in the high school age range and both were accompanying younger kids. Weird, especially since the last few days, my Instagram feed has been filled with (probably young) people begging everyone to normalize going trick or treating in your teens and even into adulthood. When I was growing up, Mom cut me off from trick or treating at the age of 12...which now that I think about it, I remember being told I went trick or treating the very first Halloween after my birth (so I was roughly 9 weeks old?) with my siblings, who would've been 14 and 13 at the time. Maybe Mom was just too tired to argue with my siblings?

4. This was the first year I actually had a dog in costume on my porch. I'd just finished making some chicken breasts for dinner...I should've slipped him a piece. He was 100% a good doggo and looked adorable in his...I think it was a prisoner costume, complete with extra "legs". It was confusing but I was petting a happy, affectionate dog so I really didn't care what he was wearing.

5. No overwhelmingly most popular costume this year. In fact, I don't think I saw a single repeat. I saw a lion, a dragon, a scary doll, a football player, a Jedi, some generic Goth-type costumes, different princesses and more but nothing that screamed "trendy".

6. Because I had so much candy left over, I kept the porch light on 20 minutes later than usual (trick or treating here is always 6:00-8:00). Most years, I'll get no one until 6:20 or even 6:30, then there will be a steady-ish stream until about 7:30, then no one. This year, I had three kids ring my bell at 8:03. Yes, they got extra candy <g>. I'd made up trick or treat bags with either 2 pieces of chocolate* and one fruit-flavored candy or a piece of chocolate, a piece of fruit-flavored candy and a mini-lollipop. The latecomers got an extra lolly <g>.

* representing the chocolate: Reese's peanut butter cups (the gold standard here for at least 50 years), Nestle Crunch, "Ghoulish Green" Snicker and Kit-Kats. Representing the fruit-flavored candy: Haribos gold bears, Haribos sour bats, Haribos "space mix" and Sour Patch kids. The lollipops were mini-Charms and the result of panic buying this afternoon when I *really* didn't need any more candy. I was off today, which was a Halloween treat on its own, but I further treated myself to a red bean paste sesame ball and a cloud tea at an Asian bakery plus some beads from Cleveland Rocks and Beads and some items from Michaels. The lollipops came from Dollar Tree; I needed a mini hand sanitizer for the car.

And finally...

7. I had an inordinate number of kids tonight expressing interest in what the inside of my house looked like (and yet none commented on my Halloween-themed T-shirt, matching earrings and cats ears headband). Two even tried to come inside; one was young enough to not really know any better while the other...wasn't. Maybe they were intrigued by the darkened kitchen, which is in direct line of sight from the front door. Or maybe they saw how run down the outside of our house is and thought there was some haunted house action inside <g>.

Happy Halloween!