Tricks or Treats?

These are my two youngest boys, Mitchell (top) and Tyrone (bottom) looking like they're posing for mugshots in a police station. But in all reality, they're just posing for me after fun-night at school. They love to get their faces painted at any opportunity, and I'd say that these face-painters did a great job, especially on the spider web.

We just got back from trick-or-treating a couple of hours ago, and it was bitterly cold out there. I'm actually dreading what weather lies ahead for the rest of winter. Not that I don't like winter . . . it's actually my favorite season ~ I don't really enjoy the heat of summer and I'd rather bundle up and have to wear more clothes rather than reduce the amount of clothing I have to wear. I'm sure I'm in a very small minority when it comes to choosing winter as my favorite season. But the thing I love the most about winter is the hoar frost that we are so blessed with after a heavy fog. It is like God takes a huge paintbrush full of white paint and spreads it all over the great outdoors. It is breathtaking and always reminds me of God's awesome power and creative nature. But I don't like the piercing, bitter wind that tends to accompany the winter season. That, I could live without.

So, back to the tricks or treats . . . the boys brought in a lot of stuff just from going to 30 - 40 houses on our street (we have a pretty long street, with house numbers ranging from 100 - 500). After I "safety-checked" everything, they went to town on eating their candy. However, this year I put a limit of 5 items each for the first night. They seemed disappointed with that at first, but by the time they got to item 4 they were pretty much full of the sugar thing already and didn't even want more. So now we have enough candy to last until at least Christmas, and then they get another load, which will last until Easter, at which point more is lavished upon them. Yes, we have too much candy in the house for the majority of the year, due to these candy-infested holidays. Actually, in the process of packing up to move, I got rid of a bunch of last years' Halloween, Christmas and Easter candy. Thank goodness there are times that the novelty does wear off. Or maybe my will power kicks in a bit more and I realize that I'm in charge of what enters my child's body and they don't get as much as they used to. I'm not sure. All I know is that I was excited to get some of my own treats from some of the neighbors, as well as from my own boys, since for some reason they don't enjoy certain chocolate bars. But I'm not going to complain. I'm happy with pretty much any chocolate bar and lately I've really been craving chocolate, so it works for me.

The "tweens" and "teens" were out later in the evening, and I gave them all treats, so hopefully they won't pull any tricks on us overnight. We've been fortunate so far since living where we do . . . we've never been toilet papered or egged or vandalized or anything. I'm so glad and I hope it stays that way.

Au revior. Gotta go watch House.