Halloween morning came a bit early

My kids are PUMPED about Halloween. They will get dressed up as Darth Vader, a Storm Trooper, and Yoda tonight and go door to door to beg for candy from total strangers dressed. What a holiday!

 We told them last night that trick or treating is done on Halloween when it gets dark. I should know by now to be more specific.

At 3:00 AM my daughter and son come pouncing into my room and say, “Mom, MOM! It is Halloween and it is dark! Come on! Let’s go!!!”

While part of me wanted to laugh, I was just too tired.

I walked them back to their room, tucked them back into bed, and told them they needed to sleep till the sunshine came up. Then we would have all day together. Then, when the sunshine went down again we could go trick or treating.

“But why, Mom?” my daughter asked. “It is Halloween NOW and it is dark NOW. Why can’t we go NOW?”

“Well,” I say, half asleep and trying to decide how to explain this to 5 and 4 year olds when my mind is not fully functioning. “Right now everyone is asleep. No one would answer the door and give you candy.”

“If we ringed the drawer bell they would waked up!” my son suggested.

“They may wake up,” I said, “but they would not want to give you candy because trick or treat time is not for 16 more hours.”

“Sixteen! That’s a lot!” my daughter argued.

“Going right now would be against the rules. And if we break the rules, people will not give you candy,” I said.

“We don’t wanna broke the rulers,” my son said. “We’ll have to go to the principal’s office.”

“Yea,” my daughter said. “And then we can’t go trick or treating at all.”

I was just too tired to care about their reasoning, I just wanted them to go back to sleep. And they did.

For two hours.

Ugh… well, Happy Halloween all.

May your houses be haunted with enough to thrill but not keeping them up all night…

May they enjoy their candy fill without getting cavities…

May you find the special treat that is delectable and delightful and COMPLETELY calorie free…

And may you enjoy the day because they won’t be this cute forever.