Trick or Treat

Halloween 2008 is over. But around here in a strange way it feels more over than ever before. The kids are just growing up. We don't carve a pumpkin, we didn't get out the skeleton to hang on the door - not a single decoration was put out to show our "Halloween Spirit". Youngest is 9 and in the third grade so I have the slimmest slice of Halloween still left. But those other two...they're just OLD! Bookworm stayed home and just hung out and went to bed early. She had the SAT this morning so she wasn't interested in Halloween. She was laying on my big bed going through the SAT prep book trying to learn that one last thing to increase her score. Tween is in middle school and last year declared that his days of trick or treating were over. I MADE him go last year. I told him he couldn't decide to suspend a family ritual without giving me a year's notice. So he went last year, but this year, no way; he went over to a sleepover. They passed out candy and I suspect they ran around the neighborhood a little bit enjoying the unsupervised, after dark freedom that kids have on Halloween. So I walked Youngest and a friend around with a few of my friends and felt nostalgic. The nights of going out as "a gang" are over - it's just me and my baby - and he won't be a baby much longer.

And the worst part of only having one trick or treater... there's only one bag of candy to steal from and four people trying to steal it. So it's a little more obvious and Youngest is feeling a little wary of all of us. I think he'll be sleeping with that bag tonight since the time that he goes bed until the time that the last one of us goes to bed seems to be particularly vulnerable!