Trick or Treat

I haven't really liked Halloween in my adult life.  I LOVE Thanksgiving.  I LOVE Christmas.  I love holidays where you cook and families come together and you give thanks.  I don't like dressing up. And, I will eat whatever candy is in the house so there is no reason to have it here and Halloween brings lots of candy.

I haven't been a fan of Halloween since I was a child and I am not even sure that I liked it then.  When Jackson was born, I think everyone expected us to put him in a costume for whatever reason and take him someplace or at least take his picture. He was 3 months old for his first Halloween.  We didn't dress him up.  We just didn't feel that it was necessary and where would we have gone with him?

Last year, he was 15 months old.  Nope.  We still didn't dress him up.  He wasn't allowed any candy at that time and again, we didn't see any reason to dress him up and parade him around.

This year was a little different.  I had a change of heart.  I researched costumes and the least intrusive outfit that I could find was a Thomas the Train outfit.  Basically, a shirt and a cute hat.  He wore the hat for 45 seconds.  Total.  He actually wore the shirt for our entire trip to the Zoo and for the first part of our train ride last weekend.  I am pretty sure he didn't wear it at all for school trick or treating.

Now, we have a ridiculous amount of candy in our house and I have a toddler who has taken to swinging his pumpkin around while yelling "TRICK OR TREAT!"  He now asks for candy every hour.  Awesome.

Jackson's allergy to peanuts makes the whole trick or treating thing a little more complicated for us.  We have to read every single label and we must remove any item stating that it was made with peanuts, may contain peanuts, processed in a plant with peanuts, generally around peanuts, or if the people making the product have ever seen peanuts.  You get the idea.  The allergy rules out about 80% of the candy he has picked up.

Now, Jason and I have ample candy supply.  And, we have had fun seeing what kind of candy Jackson likes. He doesn't really like anything chewy.  He isn't a big fan of taffy or candy that is similar.  Of course, Hershey's chocolate bars and M&M's don't have a warnings on the labels and he really, really likes those.  He likes suckers.  He ate two candy corns yesterday.

I had fun this year.  Halloween wasn't bad at all.  I will admit that Boo at the Zoo was fun.  Really fun.  The Eerie Express was a great time.  Jackson had fun and Jason and I had fun with him.  So, Halloween can be about togetherness.  It can be about a family going out together for Trick or Treating and sharing memories.  Just one question, can we please just give out apples or fruit next year?