I sprained my knee shortly before Halloween. I wasn’t doing anything physically demanding, just taking a step up the stairs, when suddenly I felt a terrible twisting in my knee, followed by pain. I was on my way to bed when it happened, and it was too late at night for me to fuss over it. I just had to hope that it would miraculously feel better when I woke up. That didn’t turn out to be the case. It was stiff and painful, not so bad that I couldn’t go out trick-or-treating with the kids, just bad enough that it bothered me nearly the entire time.
Livia dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood. I would have preferred to buy a premade costume that was complete, but as is so often the case, the manufacturer’s costumes were all trashy looking, really inappropriate for a 12-year-old. I tried to find her an ordinary peasant dress, but hit various snags, including price and shipping times. Ultimately we had to settle for a German barmaid dress, the top of which I adjusted with some stitches and safety pins. The only cape we could get was full-length, so I cut it shorter for her (slightly lopsided, but not worth risking a worse outcome by fiddling with it). We found the perfect basket, and put Cubby (our stuffed-animal wolf pup) into the basket, which we thought was a cute touch and nicer than the bloody wolf’s head we had first considered. That led one person to think that she was dressed as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, but Livia didn’t seem to mind. She was pleased with her costume and enjoyed showing it off.
Let it also be noted that Livia decorated the house with her own homemade Halloween decorations. She’s such a creative self-starter. The decorations were cute, and after the holiday was over, she took them down when she was asked to, no fuss no muss.
Marshall did not dress up for Halloween. I had resolved not to choose a costume for him. I gave him a deadline for choosing, and he didn’t get it done. So, he was wearing ordinary street clothes that night and did not intend to trick-or-treat. His aunt dumped a ton of candy into a bag for him at his grandparents’ house, which was fine, except that then she also encouraged him to trick-or-treat with his sister and cousin. All along the route, people were really nice about giving him candy, too. That kindness was a joy to witness. But, as a mom, I also saw that he was being rewarded for being too lazy to pick a costume and that he was getting far more candy than would be healthy for him to eat. Eventually I had to put my foot down and tell him that he had enough. So, that wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t entirely his fault, and I’m glad that he went out with us and had a good time.
All things considered, it was another successful Halloween. I’ll treasure it as I do all the others that came before. Will there be more trick-or-treating adventures for us in the future? I hope to get at least one or two more. But, it became obvious to me as we walked around that night that trick-or-treating is becoming a thing of the past. There were fewer kids trick-or-treating, and fewer households handing out candy. Later I discovered that it wasn’t just a local phenomenon. Apparently everyone’s doing trunk-or-treating instead these days. Trunk-or-treat seems lame to me, but no one asked for my opinion, and I guess I’m just happy that I and my kids got to enjoy trick-or-treating while it was still the big thing.