The Halloween Recap

Pumpkins
Hereby a picture of the jack o'lanterns chez dadinprogress, so no one thinks I was joking in a previous post when I claimed to be a master pumpkin carver. Ariel took me the longest to do. However, mine are not near as impressive as the gourdal masterpiece that Creative Type Dad crafted as an homage to Colonel Sanders and KFC.

Weather
Despite some chaotic storms and strong wind all weekend, we managed to have our fourth freakishly warm Halloween night in Connecticut, with temperature in the low to mid 60s. You gotta love no coat over the costume.

Trick or Treat
My wife and I relished, for the first time this year, staying back and chatting at the sidewalk with friends while the girls ran up to the door and did their thing. Finally, Halloween freedom! Next year: how to weave a good bottle of red wine into the T-o-T routing. And, lo and behold, there were no stupid politicians knocking on doors last night or calling the house. But we enjoyed the respite from the TV and all the immature, unprofessional and utterly disgusting TV ads that have been cluttering our must see TV.

UNICEF
I had a touch of nostalgia last night when the girls carried UNICEF boxes in addition to their candy bags. I remember doing the same as a kid. To my surprise, everyone in the neighborhood was very generous. (Thank you!) Halfway through the neighborhood, Skylar said "I just got a whole dollar from that house. I'm gonna have a lot of money tonight!" So she didn't really understand charity, but did a good thing just the same.

Candy
When all was said and done, there weren't too many lollipops or pieces of bubble gum to throw out (no nos in our house!), and plenty of stuff left over. I'm eying some KitKats, but was only invited by the girls to have the Almond Joys. We threw out the loose candy corns (hello, who gives out four loose candy corns per child!?). And a sign of the times, we separated out the booty -- pencils, stickers and puzzles that apparently are trendy "value adds" to the candy. Surprisingly, I ate not one single piece of candy at all yesterday.

Exhaustion
With the time change and all the activity, the girls were beat. Up a little past their bedtime, they also woke up early this morning. Both had school and then Skylar had gymnastics, so she was a little zombie tonight...a day late.