Happy Halloween!!!!!

Happy Halloween everyone.

Has anyone else noticed that the Christmas advertisements and displays are already starting to appear?  My Lord, it isn't even November yet and the greedy corporate grab asses are already asking me what's on my Christmas with list.

SAVE NOW!!!!  BUY NOW!!!!  BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!!!!

Hey, Mr. Big Business, why don't you loosen that tie of yours and enjoy the day?  Did you happen to notice that the leaves are turning color?  It's nature's own fireworks display and you're missing the show, brother.

By the way, I find it irritatingly amusing that not only did you not wait for the end of Halloween, you also gave Mr. Tom Turkey a miss and went straight into jingle bells.  I guess Thanksgiving isn't quite as profitable for you, is it?

Mr. Big Business, you are the very reason I cut the cable and now have just an antennae so that I can catch a few ball games now and then.  I don't need your crappy advertisements telling my kids what all the "hot" and "must have" toys and clothes are.

Without your not so divine influence my kids Christmas list went from a couple of pages to just three or four items.......In fact, since we have kicked you out of our house it has been much easier to implement our new Christmas present philosophy.  Everyone in our family gets four items from Santa:

1. Something you want.
2. Something you need
3.  Something to wear
4. Something to read.

Okay.....I need to get off my rant before this blog veers way off course. (actually, it already has)

I absolutely love Halloween.  I will readily admit that I really have no idea where Halloween originated from and what's it's true meaning is.....and I don't care.

Part of the reason I love Halloween is that I do have a slight fascination for most things dark and morbid.  Tim Burton and Stephen King.......Need I say more?

And what goes better with death than chocolate?  Oh, boy!!!!!  Snickers bars, Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, Kit Kats......Drool.  Although, I wish more people gave out Reeses Pieces.....or, maybe not.  Probably not a good idea for me.

Halloween is a double edged sword for me.  On the one hand, I really get into the costumes and guessing what the kids are supposed to be.  I love putting the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas on and watching it over and over and over again.  When I'm not doing that I'm listening to the music of Danny Elfman, who did the film score for most of Tim Burton's movies.

But on the other hand, there's that candy.....All that beautiful candy.  It's a wonder I don't end up having my stomach pumped or lose a few teeth every Halloween.  The temptation is just to much for this chocoholic.

If I had been smart about it, I would have set a maximum number of houses that my kids can trick or treat and then call it good.  But I didn't, and now every year the kids come home with, quite literally, an entire pillow case full of candy.

I remember the one year when I took the kids to this house in town where, apparently, it did not make the list of places to visit by a majority of the kids in town.

The kind old man opened the door, smiled, and asked "Is there anyone else out there?"

"No, it's just us."

"Ok."

Then the kind old man took his entire bucket of candy and dumped it into both kids bags.  Tera looked as if she had just hit the lottery as the weight of all the candy hitting her bag made her lean forward.  She smiled big, thanked the kind old man, and grunted as she just barely got the bag thrown over her little shoulder.

"I gotta shut this down," smiled the old man, "The KU game is about to start......Can't be disturbed."

Then he closed the door and out went the front porch light.


The nice, but kind of sad, thing about this Halloween is that Toby is now thirteen, he has a social life and won't be going trick or treating this year.


That means I won't have to worry about him selling me his candy.....

Every year, Toby would go trick or treating, come home and dig out all the gum and a few pieces of chocolate, and then proceed to sell the rest to his friends.  (The entrepreneur.....I swear, he takes after his mother)

Well, he found out one year (I don't know how and I'm not sure I really want to know) that bringing candy to sell at school is a no-no.....So guess who ended up buying it all up?

It was a clever ploy.  Toby, knowing my love for all things chocolate, used to hide his candy so that I wouldn't get into it and eat up his profits.  But when his school and candy business got shut down he proceeded to set his candy right out in the open on our dining room table.....I'm not so sure he didn't strategically place all of my favorites right at the top of the bowl for me to see......The little prick.

Beside the bowl was his little menu with the prices of all the candy in the bowl.....How shrewd.

Of course, my wallet got a helluva lot lighter as I proceeded to om nom nom my teeth right out of my skull.

But, like I said, I don't have to deal with that this year........I already miss it.

Now Tera is just like her dad.  As soon as she comes home she dumps everything out on the floor and separates everything into piles.  Unlike her brother, she is only separating the candy out so she knows what order she's going to eat everything in.  Beside her are already at least three or four empty wrappers.

Karla allows Tera her few pieces and then tells her to go take a bath.  While Tera is in the tub, Karla then proceeds to hide then candy so that she may be able to ration it out later and monitor her intake....And, no.....I don't know where she hides it.....Dammit.

As I said earlier....I'm kind of sad that Toby is now too old (he thinks) to trick or treat.  I don't know what I'm going to do when Tera decides that she is too old.

I mean, yes, I could just buy way too much candy and then keep what's left over after all the trick or treaters have been through......But it's not the same.

Maybe I can talk Karla into adopting........  :)

Yeah, whatever.  Anyway,  Happy Halloween, everyone!!!!! Enjoy all that wonderful candy.....Life is good.