Sunday, November 1, 2009

Halloween Surprise

I spent Halloween at my son's home in California. It is becoming quite the trick (pun intended) to make 4 children ages 4 to 12 happy on Halloween. Complicating the evening is that they just moved to their new house in June and wanted to spend some time trick or treating in their old neighborhood too. The girls (youngest two) wanted friends to come along, the oldest (boy) wanted to go with friends, the second son didn't care that much about the whole thing.

So, Grandma stayed at their house to hand out candy to trick or treaters there. WOW! For a time, I just stood in the open doorway because there wasn't time to actually close the door. This entire area is full of families with children. That's one thing my son and daughter-in-law liked about it. After a couple of hours, the second boy and the youngest girl came home and helped me, but it was a busy night.

Normally, I don't like handing out candy on Halloween. I used to bribe my youngest son with pizza and a friend staying over to answer the door. I've left a large bowl of candy on the porch with a note to take a piece, or I've been sure to be away. However, the trick-or-treaters here were unfailingly polite. Everyone had a smile and a thank you. Most were accompanied by parents, but even the adolescents on their own were courteous and pleasant. One little boy was a chef, complete with a stainless bowl for his treat, a very small child had on an adorable Nemo costume (his mother was a red crayon). This is a very well-behaved neighborhood; I can see why they like it here so much.

9 comments:

Kay said...

It's so nice to know that California is raising such polite kids. Now everybody will ask you where that neighborhood is so that they can move there, too.

Jean said...

This is encouraging news, for sure! Maybe my negative attitude toward Halloween would improve if the children you saw last night came trick-or-treating to my door!

Mare said...

It is refreshing to hear that there still are polite kiods around! You must be kinda tired from all of the kid activity!

Jo, a retired teacher said...

Kay: I don't know about the entire state, but this area was lovely.

Jean: My own negative attitude took a turn for the better.

Mare: You're right. Halloween, time change, home to different time zone all require a bit of down time.

Sharon said...

Sounds like you had a fun but busy time. I'm glad that the kids were polite, it makes the evening more enjoyable. Hope you are rested up now.

I had one thing annoy me that evening. While many parents dressed up for the kids, several of them were trick-or-treating for themselves. Oh well, I handed them candy and told them to have fun and be safe too.

Jo, a retired teacher said...

Sharon: Honestly? Parents trick-or-treating? That's a new one on me--and a bit disturbing.

Linda Reeder said...

Glad you had a good time with your grandchildren. I did too, and I was the one to hand out candy to polite kiddos, too.

wispy willow said...

We never have trick or treaters... our home is too far off the beaten path and the loooong driveway is dark and foreboding.

SO... my hubby and I get dressed up and deliver treats to the neighbors. We have great fun doing it! We go to the youngest families with tiny tots, and the elderly folks who rarely get any visitors. We have several whose homes are also off the beaten path and don't get little Cinderellas and Goblins and Superheros knocking at their doors.

Jo said...

I must admit to falling into one of your categories for previous years. We took our boys and went to an early movie, left about 4:15. From the movie we went out to dinner and then made a stop at walmart where everyone got to pick out the candy of their choice. Got home about 8:30 which was post TOTing time here. Never heard a doorbell once the entire evening. We chose to do it this year because I consider my oldest too old to go out and my youngest has braces and wouldn't be able to eat most of the candy he got anyway, but it was so fun we may do it again. The movie theatre was empty and the restaurant only slightly busy. If we'd stayed further away from campus, I'll bet the restaurant would have been emptire.