BOO!

What? It's Halloween?? Again??? The time is going.....going........gone. My Halloween baking was limited this year due to the fact that I am in the process of having my kitchen renovated. In sections. Very small annoying sections. I have been living out of large Rubbermaid bins for over a month now and I'm starting to get very tired of it all. Yes, I know. It will all be worth it. Sweet Maria, if I had a nickel for every time I heard that one I could upgrade to a Wolf stove.

Some women yearn for diamonds. Others want fine cars. All I want is a Wolf stove. I know you've seen them. They are the smaller home version of the commercial restaurant stainless steel stove and are easily recognizable by the large red knobs along the front. Ah......sweet bliss. Am I nuts or what??

I've been so busy making cakes lately that I had alot of cake "guts" leftover to make cakepops. So I made a couple of dozen for the kids.

And some people at work.

And the mailman.

They're not perfect. Like these three dopey punkin' heads. They have crooked smiles and they have drips on the sticks. Luckily, they're never around long enough for anyone to really examine them.

Do you have any good Trick or Treating stories from your childhood?? For my sister Kathy and I, it was just an all out sugar festival. My father was always the parent who accompanied us around the neighborhood. He was such a trooper. Never complained about it. He just followed us up and down the street carrying a large army-green flashlight, lighting the way up and down walkways.

One year, I think my sister was a clown. You remember the classic costumes from the 60's?? Cheap fabric, which was jammed on over a pair of pants and a jacket and usually tied in the back at the neck. The face mask was molded plastic with slits cut out for eyes, nose and mouth. The mask was held in place by a thin elastic that went around the back of your head just above your ears. I don't think there was a child on the planet that could stand to wear one of those masks for any longer than 5 minutes. After that time, condensation formed inside the mask and made you start to sweat. Most of the time you ended up ripping the mask off and perching it horizontally on top of your head while gasping for breath. Chapped lips almost always prevailed the morning after a vigorous evening behind a Halloween mask.

One particular Halloween, I remember my sister complaining that she couldn't breathe out of her mask. As usual, I ignored her. But when we crossed the street to trick or treat the neighbors, she tripped over a shrub in the yard, ripped off the mask and tearfully wailed, "Dad, I can't see or breathe with this mask!" My father sighed heavily, took the mask from her outstretched hand and after close examination said, "The nose openings need to be larger. I'll be right back". He crossed the street to our house and went straight to his workbench in the garage. After a few minutes he returned and handed the plastic mask back to my sister saying, "Here. Try this. Now you can breathe." My sister put the mask on only to discover that the entire nose section had been completely torn off! The clown's bulbous round nose had been replaced by nothing more than a gaping hole. My father used a needle-nosed pliers to try to widen the nose openings, however instead of making a slight cut, he simply grabbed onto the clown's nose and pulled. Hysterically funny although Kathy could have cared less. We were starting our Trick or Treating and now she could breathe.

My mother always stayed home to hand out the candy. Ours was a tough house to visit while Trick or Treating. For the little ones dressed as ghouls, witches and goblins, the candy bowl was always lowered with a smile and the kids could freely "pick their poison". We always had a nice sugar medley of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Kit Kat Bars and mini Hershey Chocolate Bars with Almonds. However, if my mother thought anyone looked too old to Trick or Treat, she always felt obligated to question them. This never failed to mortify me. She always ended up giving them Halloween candy, but she would make sure to fill up the rest of their Trick or Treat bags with a little guilt too.

My mother would turn out our front light when all the candy had been passed out OR when it was 8pm. No exceptions. She was tough.

Kathy and I would do the 1/2 mile neighborhood loop in about 2 hours and arrive home overheated, breathless and elated. Our candy was immediately dumped on the living room floor and sorted out. Piles of candy bars were placed strategically (for counting purposes) and the less popular candy like Chuckles and Goobers were put aside. Usually, my mother had us put all of our candy in a large bowl for everyone in the family to "share".

Leaving our entire loot of Halloween candy in a bowl in the living room only meant one thing to us. Within a few days, the chocolate bars would magically disappear while we slept and by the middle of November we were always left with a shabby pile of Pixie Sticks, Sweet Tarts , Bazooka Bubble Gum and a few Chuckles.

What do you remember about Halloween??