Boo! Want Some Candy?

Jarrah is not quite ready to let Halloween go. This morning (in her pajamas) she asked if she could stand outside and "give out candy to customers." Not sure where she got that customers idea--really hope I won't find a stash of crumpled dollar bills in her hamper later. She was still wearing her witchy hat and swinging her broomstick at every available head (Note to self: No costumes with clubs next year.)

Last night's trick-or-treating was a great success. While we couldn't get Jarrah over the threshold at the self-proclaimed "Haunted House," she conquered her fears at all the rest, keeping her focus on the bucket of candy in the door-lit eye of the cobwebs, flashing lights, hanging ghouls and glowing jack-o-lanterns. Her motto seemed to be, "Life is full of the scary, but the scary leads to the candy."

Although we left for Hannah's house too early to do any trick-or-treating on our street (or give out any candy at our house) Jarrah didn't miss out--after a successful mission around the streets of Burlingame, she and Hannah became the official "giver-outers" back at her place. And they were a full-service operation--you didn't even need to come to the door. The two girls grabbed handfuls out of the bowl and raced down the front steps to greet everyone in costume, great or small, and stuffed their bags before they could even say anything.

In a happy coincidence, Jarrah was not the only "mean witch" in attendance--Hannah's other friends, sisters Leigh and Abbie, rounded out the perfect trio of Big, Medium and Little Wicca Sisters. It was cuter n' cute. And even kooky Mommy got in on the fun, doing a little impromptu Nia in the dry ice. The girls thought I was crazy, but I enjoyed myself.

We kicked off the seasonal festivities one week earlier, at the annual Haunted Birch Aquarium, where we were joined by Joy and Nathan's families. The place was all a-glow (including some of the fish) and a live band kept us boogie-ing. While there's some trick-or-treating at this event, it's minimal (I think Jarrah had two pieces of candy, and a few small toys, in her bag at the end of the night) and instead there are lots of groovy stations to explore, like the box you can shake until it glows (I learned the word "bioluminescence") and a big bowl of "eyeballs" you can reach into and squish. There were games and prizes, and a costume contest but you kind of had to be in marine-themed couture to win that.

This is the first year that Jarrah has been truly interested in Halloween as a seasonal EVENT (rather than a strange evening where you walk up to people's doors and, inexplicably, they hand you the thing you crave most in the world) and we've spent a LOT of time discussing the various implications of a holiday devoted to "making you say eeks!" We've read three themed books together--The Very Brave Witch, Vunce Upon a Time, and Scary, Scary Halloween--and last night she asked a minimum of 10 times "Why that house have steam?" and "How come that Quartz Bride have hands? Some Quartz Brides only have skeleton hands."

"But some Quartz Brides don't have skeleton hands? Why is that?" I asked her. I figure turnabout is fair play. She had no answer. Yet another mystery of scary, scary Halloween.