A Neighborhood Halloween

The kids really enjoyed our simple Halloween this year.  I bought two small bags of Hershey's Kisses and Rolos for trick-or-treaters.  The twins and I skipped the school costume parade so that we could attend J's fall party instead.  The kids watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown as I made dinner.  Due to a very packed October schedule we carved our pumpkins no sooner than one hour before our doorbell rang the first time.  I didn't stress over not fitting things in sooner or not having all the details in place on time.

And they still had a great time knocking on the doors up and down and short street for the thirty minutes we were outside.  I met all my neighbors, making a mental map of houses and names and pets and interesting facts collected from our conversations. 

The kids chose such simple costumes this year--A dressed as a monarch butterfly, E donned the superhero cape and his new red boots to fight bad guys, and J chose to be a photographer for National Geographic.  Not all years will be this easy to pull together, I know.

Halloween's greatest virtue, in my opinion, is how it connects us to our neighborhood.  That sentiment reflects a definite shift in attitude, and it came just in time to be a part of the fun inherent some Halloween traditions.  We deliberately kept trick-or-treating to the houses on our street in hopes that the  kids would form some memory of who lives behind each door.  We'll see what sticks as we practice names over the next few weeks.