But NEXT Year, We Double The Candy!

And so now my second Halloween in Toledo is over. It was even better than last year!

David got off work a little early so he could give out candy with me. He’s not been feeling well and came home feeling a bit achy, so we decided that we’d skip the grownups party after, but we set up the porch for the two-hours of kids.

Mr. Pumpkinhead, what we called our Jack-o-lantern, fit perfectly on the dummy mailbox we have on the side of the porch. That “mailbox” doesn’t even have a door, just the house number on it, but plenty of room to prop a wobbly bottomed pumpkin on a rock and hold it still all night!

Mounds and the candy table

Next we set up two of the TV tables on either side, one for the box with the candy bags and the overflow bowls of mini candy bars and tootsie rolls. On the other ne we set up David’s laptop so he could play online poker during the lulls in business. We put on our costumes (Me Mounds and David Almond Joy) and setup my directors chairs from my car on either side of the door.

Since the cats couldn’t actually see the kids running up because Mom and Dad were sitting in front of the door, they didn’t run scared this year. There weren’t any of the “giant lady bugs” Kaline had blogged abut last year anyway. But funny, in the bright and warm day that smelled more like spring than fall yesterday, my office window was invaded! There were about 30 lady bugs climbing around and flying off and on it. After telling the story of our cute lady bug from last year, it gave me a good chuckle! Of course, if it had been colder or rainy last night, it would have been us inside trick or treaters knocking and scared cats running for cover, but the unseasonably nice weather made it a fun outdoor affair!

What do you think his costume is?
Take a closer look - He’s a CANNIBAL!

While we didn’t see any lady bugs this year, but we saw some ghouls, a very buffed out Buckeye football player a guy in a furry mask who said “trick or treat” with just an awesome gruff character voice. I also saw one hand holding open a bag with a wedding band on it. I mentioned to David, I won’t age discriminate with the candy, if he has the guts to dress up and go door to door for candy, bless him! (says the giant Mounds bar giving out candy) The costume of the night seemed to be princesses this year, but we also had a Tinkerbelle who was very animate about making sure we knew she was Tinkerbelle and not a princess. But of curse, princesses have everything EXCEPT wings! There was also Scooby Doo and a couple of the tiniest skeletons in strollers.

We suspect between it being Friday and that unseasonably warm weather it explains why our turnout was so much more than expected! Thank goodness for the overflow bowls! We were prepared, but we lost count after about 15 past the 45 candy bags we’d made! Next year, Halloween on a Saturday, we plan to do 80! After the last bag was gone, only a little over an hour in, I handed David the mini bars bowl and I took the Tootsie Rolls. Each kid got something from each of us. Then when we still had about 20 minutes to go, all we had was Tootsie Rolls! I am so glad I begged David to get the Tootsie Rolls! I thought the bags needed just a little more. He bought a bag of 350 and for that last part of the evening we split the remaining Tootsie Rolls and put a couple each in each kid’s bag. We started “striking the porch” at about three minutes before eight and we got one last group of kids! I went back in and got the bowl, David passed the candy out. Then we finished clearing up and went in. We had three Tootsie Rolls left!

My Nono had a rule when dining at someone’s home. When you’ve had enough, leave just a spoonful on your plate. It lets your host know that the food was good and you enjoyed it, but that there was enough prepared. I always thought that was a classy unspoken message to a good host. I looked at the only three Tootsie Rolls in the bowl and thought that Nono would be proud. Even if we ran out of bags early, we still had enough to serve all of our guests!

After we turned off the porch light, we let the candle in Mr. Pumpkinhead glow until it burned out, about another two hours. No, Mr. Pumpkinhead is not like a fireplace on Christmas night, but it’s still a sweet calm after the candy storm!