Halloween & Other ‘Fun’ Size Nuggets

Halloween ’07… That’s one for the books, kids.

Firstly, we did a goofy thing here at work. There’s a daycare a few floor below where we train the nurses and doctors to use their new system and someone decided it would be fun to decorate some of our training rooms and have the little tykes come through to collect some candy from us on Halloween.

In a stupor, I must’ve signed up to help because on Tuesday, I had some of my favorite colleagues (and partners in the decorating) ask what we were gonna do. To which I characteristically responded:

“Huh?”

Anyway, long story short, we had no budget, no plans and only a handful of hours to put something together. I decided to dress up in my turnout gear (firefighter stuff) for the kids since they usually dig people like me…usually. With that in mind, we designed a room composed of cardboard buildings…ON FIRE!

It looked kind of corny, but we sort of got into it, constructing the buildings, painting them, adding windows and decor to them and taping flames and stuff to the sides. While everyone else did more kid-friendly things, we had a city burning to the ground.

Awesome. No wonder I’m having trouble getting an agent.

As the little kids (2 – 3 years old, some even younger) went through our room, complete with sound effects and flashing lights, I tossed out some safety tidbits:

“Leave those matches alone!”
“Remember, fire is hot.”
“Stop, drop and roll.”
“Don’t smoke cigarettes in bed!”

I think the kids liked it. Plus, there was candy.

On the homefront, I have some sad news to report. Laura and I weren’t able to assemble a Pope costume for Travis in time for the most exciting of holidays. Instead, we found him a boxing outfit and he was ECSTATIC about it. The kid absolutely loves boxing, so it was a no brainer. It had a little Everlast blue shiny robe, a small pair of gloves (which he calls ‘glubs’) and a little pair of shorts. When he put it on the first time, he looked at me and called me out:

“I want to box you, Dad.”

Who am I to deny my kid the chance to pummel me? I went to the garage, fetched my own gloves and we had a match right there in the basement. He came at me with a quick flurry that sent me to the canvas with a quickness. He even counted me out. I demanded a rematch and we both ended up knocking each other out.

So yeah, he loved it.

Last night marked the first time we didn’t take Travis ‘on tour’ in all his costumed glory. We instead hit the neighborhood in search of sugary delight. It was cold and blustery, so we had him bundled up pretty good. For dramatic effect, I added a shiner to his eye which had one neighbor looking at me a little funny. (pictures coming soon)

“Is that real?”

“No,” I said. “Just a little charcoal powder.”

“Damn. That’s looks real.”

You wanna see a real one, Smarty?

Travis did exceptionally well for a kid who’ll see his 3rd b-day in February. Everytime we got done trick or treating at one house, he pointed out the next place he wanted to hit. I think he’d still be going if we hadn’t wimped out from the cold. All told, he successfully charmed treats out of 20 or so houses.

Sure he had his slip ups. He would say ‘thank you’ when they’d open the door. One house he walked right in when the lady opened the screen, thinking it was time to visit her. Another time he said ‘Trick or Treat’ after they gave him the goods. Not wanting to confuse the kid, the guy ended up giving him another handful.

Well played, Travis!

As was tradition when I was a little guy, he dumped out all his goods on the floor in the family room and did a little dance arond the bounty. He ate a pack of DOTS (before bed!) and was completely fine with putting the rest of it away until later.

It was a blast and I’m looking forward to next year. The kid cracks me up.

Random Hallowen Observations:

– Don’t older kids without costumes suck?

– One little punk that came to the door did the whole: ‘Trick or treat smell my feet…’ routine. I tossed some candy into his pumpkin bucket and told him to beat it.

– Fun Size candy bars are not fun. I know comedian Rich Hall came up with this observation before me, but I don’t understand it. How much fun is a Snickers that’s so small, there’s hardly room for a peanut, let alone noogat?

– What the hell is noogat, anyway?

– Christmas crap shouldn’t come into the stores until Halloween is over. Period.

– October is the best month. Hands down.