Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Live-Blogging Hallowe'en

You all know by now that I'm a big fan of Hallowe'en, and I adore handing out candy and comics to kids who visit us the night of October 31st. I consider it my favorite holiday, in most respects. The neighborhood kids have begun to appreciate that we give out good loot, as well.

I've kept a history of our Hallowe'ens on this blog. In 2002 we went to the in-laws house and gave out comics (and pretended to give out pugs as well). It was a good year. In 2003 is was a Friday Hallowe'en, and we got 19 Trick or Treaters. I started my tradition of aiming a space heater out the door to help the kids warm up when they came by. In 2004, the year of the amazing loot bag, we got 20 visitors on a Sunday night, our all-time high. The next year, 2005, we had a low number of visitors, but the absolute best compliments so far. In 2006 we got 18 Trick or Treaters.

This year we're going to add another piece of loot. In addition to three mini-comics, one full-sized comic book, and a full-sized candy bar, we're giving out 8oz cans of Jones Soda.

Goodies Picture

I also found a handful of Pokemon trading cards that I inserted randomly in the Marvel ashcan. The flavors of the soda are "Gruesome Grape", "Strawberry Slime", "Lemon Drop Dead", and the evil one, "Candy Corn" YUCK! The candy bars are a Costco 30-count variety pack (M&Ms, Skittles, Starburst, 3 Musketeers, and Snickers).

3:30 pm: I've finished putting up the welcome signs, pumpkins in the windows, the orange lights. I've got the candy bars and sodas in bowls and the comics stacked for easy distribution. The space heater is aimed at the door. Last year's first Trick or Treaters came at about 6 pm, so I'm trying to keep myself relaxed until then. Eric will be home sometime after 5 pm, so he probably won't miss anything. With the longer daylight hours tonight, I expect many kids will wait a bit longer before going out.

5:00 pm: Lights and heat on. It's still very light out, but cloudy and looks like it might rain a little tonight.

6:00 pm: Eric's home. Still no visitors.

7:00 pm: First three showed up! Early teens, I'm not really sure what they were dressed up as, just that they were dressed up.

7:02 pm: Two more! Tiny Tim and a skater. That makes five!

8:05 pm: Nothing for an hour now. Eric had to run down to the store to get an onion for dinner tonight. But it's quiet as the grave out there.

8:40 pm: Only once have we had any Trick or Treaters later than 8:40... so I suspect that we're only going to get the five we've gotten so far this year. A massively disappointing total.

9:30 pm: Two more! Yay! They were stunned by the amount of stuff we gave out. I told them each to take two candy bars. We hardly need 20+ candy bars sitting around tempting me. Two girls dressed as French Maids.

10:00 pm: Closing up for the night. Only seven children. How depressing. Worst night ever.

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