Halloween in Metuchen

Our first Halloween in Metuchen was a fun and inspiring day.

The holiday is quickly becoming one of my favorites and I am finally glad to be living in a place where Trick or Treaters come by. For most of my adult life, I have lived in apartment or condominium complexes or renting a room in a person's house. Trick or Treaters never made it to where I was living. I suppose I cannot complain -- especially during the years I was living on the second floor. Small blessings... small blessings...

With Halloween being on a Sunday and with it being a gorgeous day, we knew we were going to get a lot of little kiddies in our neighborhood. We were right. By 8:00 last night, we had totaled 75 children that visited us. Some nice and some horrible. Let me share some quick snippets about some of them.

1. We were sitting in the living room watching some football and writing some thank you notes when the doorbell rang. It took us about 20 seconds to get to the door each time the bell rang. Standing up... getting the candy dish and putting on a bright smile. Once... the doorbell rang, we got up and started to make our way to the door. We could see three small kids at the door and we saw one small boy. Then ... we heard the boy. "Who lives in this dumb house?" We chastised him when we opened the door but the kid was too small for it to register. Let's just say that when I put in candy in his bag... it was actually the wrapper from one of the pieces of candy I had pilfered with the kid before.

2. Why was I sad to see some kids show up by themselves? They were about 10 years old without any friends, brothers, sisters or parents. Just sad almost.

3. The first kid came at 3. The last set of kids came at 8. We ran out of candy pretty much and we thought that we bought too much. Just a suggestion for next year...don't "think" that you have bought too much and you will not eat as much...taking away candy from the kids.

4. Most popular costume this year was easily the Disney Princesses line. Lots of bright pinks and muted blues on little girls.

5. If the kid is less than a year old, does he REALLY know what Trick or Treating is? I was wondering that and sort of asked one parent who was carrying around is 9 month old or so pumpkin cladded kid. I said... "What does Daddy want?" To which, Daddy responded... "Daddy wants Twix, but he is eating chocolate so that would be best for him." That is a good Dad.

6. Kids don't seem to know how to say Trick or Treat anymore.

7. Muh honey answered the door once without me. It was a little rock band and some of the kids played instruments and the "manager" collected the candy for the group. That sounded like the most clever group.

8. There really was a kid this year that took a sheet and cut a couple of eyes cut out. It was the most traditional and WORST costume.

9. I thought that a kid who took a leaf disposal bag from Home Depot...cut holes in it... taped leaves all over it and put some in his hair and wore it was pretty clever and cute.

10. Muh honey and I ended the evening with a viewing of Fright Night, which is almost impossible to find in video stores! It was good fun and muh honey was so creeped out by the end. Thanks muh honey!