Sunday, October 31, 2004

Happy Halloween!



Click to see more of our Halloween Slideshow Extravaganza!

Even though this is technically Alex's second Halloween, it's pretty much his first real Halloween because he didn't really dress up last year. I myself have never done the Halloween thing, what with me being from another country and all that, so it was kinda fun doing Trick or Treatin' with the babies, even though we did go to the mall for the loot, and the babies can't actually say the words, "Trick or Treat."

That's Alex as a Orange Vicious Tiger, (which will be renamed Zoe's Cuddly Kitty Cat for next year), and Zoe as a disgruntled Easter Bunny. My wife and I didn't dress up, or perhaps we were just going as Frazzled Parents of Babies. JL dressed up in the same outfit that she's worn for the past 3 years, some kind of red dress with white padding thingy that makes her look like either a Mormon or a Hostess at the Country Buffet. Even she doesn't know what she's supposed to be.

We were bad, we went to the mall instead of going door to door. The main reasons being that since they were so little, the harsh cold weather would've been too much for them to bear, and also they're really too young to ask for anything, which would mean I would have to knock on the door and ask myself, which seems like some half-baked plan to use my kids to get candy for myself. Of course, since most of the candy Alex got were hard candy or huge chunks of candy, he'll probably not be able to eat the majority of them anyway.

The mall experience was kinda interesting - definitely busier than I'd ever expected it to be. It was up there with Christmas, if not worse, because you've got a bunch of people packed into a mall, and half the people are kids who are in costumes, and the other half are adults trying to keep those kids in order. There was an unofficial imaginary line around the inside perimeter of the mall, whereby people would just line up and go store to store. A lot of it was really anti-climatic, because you'd wait in line for minutes and when you got to the lucky clerk who was handing out candy, she's simply smile at Alex and give him a piece of candy, two if he's lucky. It was not the handful that you'd hope for.

Of course, Alex being little, didn't understand the concept of Strangers putting things in his little orange container. He did explore in there and take out pieces of candy to place in his mouth, before I panicked each time and took it away from him. But he did get some pieces of chocolate that I had bitten off for him, so his sugar intake was relatively good for someone his age. It was enough to make him talk at the top of his voice all the way home, that's for sure. He would just go, "DAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! DAAAAAHHHHHHH!" at the top of his lungs, right behind my seat.

Interesting things to note about today's experience - Waldenbooks didn't hand out candy, they handed out Shrek bookmarks. Gee thanks, people. Our boy's picture books are maybe six pages long, but you never know. He might lose his place. Old Navy handed out Halloween stickers. But Mastercuts topped it all by giving out Shampoo samples. Oh my freakin' god, dude. Trust some poor kid to cut his candy in the dark and end up with a frothin' suprise. I had to take it away from Alex too because he was starting to nibble on it. The other notable thing was that when we were leaving the mall, we saw a group of people picketing the intersection by the mall. No, not for the upcoming elections.

Guess...




These were Christians. They were picketing Halloween. There was another sign out there that said something like "Repent your sins. Jesus loves you." My and my wife were completely flabbergasted. I mean, I understand that they can have their harvest festivals and boycott Halloween, but really, to protest a tradition that's not governmentally mandated or have any religious affliations; and that have to do more about dressing up and eating too much candy than worshipping the occult and having a beer with Satan - it's really gone too far. The guy in the picture is actually shouting his discontent to traffic.

This crazy ass world.

But anyway, it was a good Halloween for our babies. They seem to have had fun, even if it was more for Mommy and Daddy!

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