Full Moon Halloween

I knew Halloween was going to be something special this year as soon as I saw the full moon in the twilight sky. But it didn't quite start out that way.

As crazy as it sounds, we were early. We had our decorations out and our candy bowl filled before noon. By 5 o'clock, we were staring out the window looking for kids. Also, nightfall happened much later than we expected, so we wound up sitting on the front porch in broad daylight with our untouched candy and vacant grins.

A half-hour later we saw our first kid, off in the distance. By then we were both seeping blood from all the mosquito bites. Somebody needs to tell those little buggers that it's fall.

We had a lasagna ready to plug into the oven during all this, so my wife had a kitchen timer in her pocket. Every time she'd bend at the waist, "BEEP". Then she'd have to reset the timer. She'd put it back in her pocket, sit down, and "BEEP".

I giggled. "Are you making fun?", she demanded. "Which candies are your favorite? I'll give them all away first."

Despite the odd start to the festivities, we did have quite a few kids come through. Some of my favorites included:

1) A group of three little boys; Darth Vader, Darth Maul, and a Jedi. As he came forward I asked, "Are you Luke or Obi-Wan?" He shrugged. "I dunno." Behind him, his dad spoke up. "He's definitely Obi-Wan." I smiled. I see how things work in that family.

2) Not more than a half-hour into the evening, a family walked up toward our porch. Their little boy could be heard wailing, "IS IT TIME FOR ME TO GO HOME YET?!?"

3) A little boy who couldn't have been older than 4 ran up to us, wearing a pretty good Wolverine costume. I said, "Nice costume, Logan." (Logan is Wolverine's "real" name). Wolver-kiddo stared at me blankly, whimpered and then ran away.

4) We saw a dad walking his kid up to our porch. He was decked out like a biker... black leather chaps and vest, bandanna, heavy leather boots. As he got closer we noticed his tattoos, chains, and scars. Then we had a terrified little squeaky moment as we both realized it wasn't a costume. Friendly guy, though.

5) One little girl came up to us with two bags. One was for candy, and the other was a bag of Cheetos. "I'll trade you a string of Halloween lights and half the candy in this bowl for your Cheetos," I offered. "No deal," she replied.

6) As the night wound down and we still had lots of candy left, my wife said "Each kid gets a big handful from here on out." Then, two teenage girls appeared in hot-pants and too much eye makeup. My wife glared at them and deliberately gave each one a single sucker from the "stuff that got dropped in the dirt" pile.

It was a good night, full of cute kiddos, excellent weather and accidental kitchen timer BEEP's. I think we'll do it again next year.