Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Maybe it's just me, but I believe that when I have grandchildren, (which had better not be for a LONG time yet), they will only know what trick or treating was because of being told by their parents, not because they will have the opportunity to do it themselves. We have been here 10 years and the number of children that have come here on Halloween has dwindled each year until last year, for the first time, we had NO ONE come to the door. (Had to eat all that candy by myself, you know. I considered it a mercy eating - had to save my family from the stuff, of course). This year we had two little girls come to the door, but they were my neighbor's daughter and her friend and were on their way home and stopped by. Can't really count that as true trick or treating, though. I remember a few years back when a very tall teenager dressed in combat fatigues and Army boots held out his bag and with a very manly voice said, "Trick or Treat". I looked around for a hidden camera somewhere, but not finding one, and seeing the expectant look on his face, I obligingly dropped candy into his bag. I do have my suspicions, though, that he actually WAS in the military............

Andy has only been trick or treating once, and that was when he was in kindergarten. Neither of my boys was ever really interested in it. That's not MY doing - I'm all for free candy, especially if I get a cut of the chocolate! And as for that one time that Andy went, he only went as far as Hilda's house, scored a haul there, and decided that he was finished. We had painstakingly made a paper mache (did I spell that right? Doesn't look right....!) turtle shell so that he could be Franklin. I went all out on that costume, attaching Velcro straps to the "shell", and even painting a turtle shell pattern on it. For one house. Oh, well. Once I sewed a dinosaur costume for Tom when he was small. THAT was really cute. Somewhere around here I have a picture of him in it. It was like a green jumpsuit that had a hood, and I had made "fins" all down the back and on top of the hood that were stuffed. Tom went trick or treating a few more times than Andy, but didn't start getting into the swing of it until he was older and then I finally had to gently break it to him that 18 was really too old to be doing that. Nah, just kidding. It's probably a good thing my family has no interest in reading my blog huh?! Oh, the stories I could tell......!

Andy did the neatest (I'm old, okay? I use words like "neatest") thing the other night. He plays an online game in which there are players from all over the world. He and Tom have both been playing this game for a couple of years now. There is a translation mode on the game so that all the players can understand each other while they chat, but the other night Andy took a chance and decided to try chatting in Japanese with a player from Japan. I knew he was playing the game, but I didn't realize what he had done until he excitedly screamed, "I DID IT! HE UNDERSTOOD ME! AND I UNDERSTAND HIM!". He nearly scared me out of my desk chair, but his excitement was worth it. So is homeschooling! They chatted for a minute, then Andy got stumped on something and had to write that he hadn't gotten that far yet learning the language!

It is getting late now, and I think I will read for a while. Right now I am reading Seasons of the Heart, a wonderful book by Janette Oke, which I have already read a couple of years ago, but it's huge and takes me a long time to get through it. I am also reading the new issue of The Old Schoolhouse homeschooling magazine that came in Monday's mail, and An Encouraging Word magazine which came in today's mail. And there's ALWAYS an issue of Countryside lying somewhere near me. Oyasumi!

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