Our Halloween

The biggest thing about Halloween this year (for us at least) was the pumpkins. The Babe wanted to carve pumpkins right before Halloween and so we picked up a couple of likely prospects and went at 'em. I was able to find the pumpkin carving tools and we both did very good jobs of it.

I went with a genie-ish theme this year.

My pumpkin

The Babe, on the other hand, liked a skeletal pirate motif.

The Babe's pumpkin

We had cut the bottoms of the pumpkins out rather than the tops, so they set nicely on the ground. We also carved a big chimney hole in the back so the candles would burn well. I put a big candle in each one and we had two really great looking pumpkins.

My pumpkin in the dark

The Babe's pumpkin in the dark

My pumpkin looked pretty good in the light, but the Babe's looked awesome in the dark!

We actually had a fair number of kids this year. Most notable was the first set of trick-or-treaters. I heard the doorbell ring and I looked out through the glass and I saw… no kids. I only saw a big blue recycle bin, one of the 60-gallon ones with wheels. My first thought was along the lines of "Ohhhhhhhhkaaaaaaaay, this is too big for the 'burning-bag-of-dogpoop' trick" followed by some vague recollections of childhood nightmares of large boxlike things coming after me. But I could not figure out what was going on. Rather cautiously, I opened the door and stood there for a moment. I think I even said "Hello?"

BANG! The lid of the recycle bin burst off and a 12-year-old boy leapt up while his two compatriots in crime jumped from their hiding places in the bushes on either side of the house and they all yelled "TRICK OR TREAT!" as loudly as they could. I'm sure I made their night: I went "Ahhhhhh!" in surprise, my arms and legs waved, and I generally looked pretty idiotic. They laughed. I gave them a lot of candy; it was a heckuva good gag.

Sidenote: Okay, so I'm slow on the uptake sometime. Years ago, when someone called me at 2 in the bloody morning and said "Does your refrigerator run?" I was so befuddled by sleep that I actually said "Yes" before the filters kicked in. (The anonymous caller then said, "Well, you'd better get it, it's running down the street!" and hung up to the sounds of laughter in the background. I stood there in the living room staring at the phone for a moment, smiled, and said "Not bad!")

I was the trio's first victim of the evening. After a brief discussion of who got to be in the recycle bin next time, the chosen one clambered inside and closed the lid, then the other two wheeled their lifesize jack-in-the-box off to the next sucker's house.

Who says that kids today don't show initiative?

Our Halloween