Trick or Treat Pre-Teen Style

Happy Halloween to you all! What is it about Halloween? Why is it that this time of year we get such happiness from trying to scare ourselves on purpose. It has to tap into the same type of rush you get from riding roller coasters and jumping out of airplanes. But that's not what I'm talking about today. Today it's about the boy and girl.

When you are big bad junior high students you have to take your first good hard look at this trick or treat situation. This is the first year where people just might raise an eyebrow at you when you show up at their door. And then at the end of the night you find yourself with a bag of Dum-Dums from the "Big Kid Bowl" that every house has tucked away just for the kids they think are too old.

There was a dance at school, a couple of weeks ago, but it wasn't a Halloween dance. You could wear a costume if you wanted to, but most didn't. Today you could wear a costume to school if you wanted to. But what stressful situation! Do you wear a costume and find yourself alone dressed like a zombie in a sea of kids who are too cool for this nonsense? Or do you not wear a costume but then everyone else does? It's enough to make your head explode! The girl took some costume pieces along to change into after gym if enough of her friends decided to dress up. The boy passed on the whole thing.

Tonight is trick or treat and I know they are not going to pass by the opportunity to go get all the loot they can. But we didn't go costume shopping. The plan is to just put something together, whatever they can find, tonight and then go out. A bit lame I think, but it's been their choice. Up until yesterday I wasn't even certain that they were going out trick or treating. They haven't even carved their pumpkins yet. The man and I did.

Here's the man's creepy zombie hand. It looks way cool lit up!

Here's my little kitty pumpkin (are you surprised?) hanging out with skeleton dude.

Eventual all kids find out about the big Santa lie, but they still get Christmas. But with Halloween, when you outgrow it, it's really over for awhile. You go into a Halloween limbo; too old to be cute, too young to go to keggers. Oh, yes, that's when Halloween comes back, when your all grown up and Halloween parties take on a whole new dimension. My grandparents were huge Halloween people and my grandma made the two of them elaborate costumes every year and they always won the contest at those swinging parties. You should see the pictures! Maybe I'll try to dig a few up...

Happy Haunting!