Happy Halloween!

XX has been looking forward to this for months. Candy and dressing up, what's not to like?

There was one small change this year: fear. A few displays in stores scared XiaoXiao so much, we had to leave. She screamed loudly on entering a few places, cried, begged to leave. And so we did. I'll be glad to get back into the local hardware store, Walgreen's, even some of the grocery and craft stores.

After one place, she commented, "Why do they put that stuff up? It's terrifying to little kids. I know. I'm a little kid."

A rubber hand reaching out of a truck body had her frozen stiff (it did the same to me, actually). I have never witnessed a face turning white before, now I have and I hope never to see it again. XiaoXiao's face lost all its color, her breathing stopped. Even after I told her it was a toy hand she asked, "Are you sure? It looks like there's a kid in there." And she sobbed. I carried her home and she talked about it for days, wondering who would think it was funny to hurt a kid.

She said perhaps Halloween wasn't such a good holiday after all. It seemed mean. But then it turned around again as fun always does.

Our neighborhood grocery put on a wonderful day for the kids. Okay, it's a chain, Whole Foods, but the people there make it feel like a small town store. They greet us, they know XX, let her help them scan groceries, they offer her fruit if she declines a treat, they know not to offer lollypops, they all have their special greeting to XX: a high five, a hug, a pick up or a joke. They bring her stickers from parties they've been to on days off, they help her locate half dollar coins she's searching for, they always hold conversations with her as long as she wants to talk (which can be a long time).

On Saturday, they had cookie decorating, pumpkin painting, balloons, guide dogs-in-training, and face painting.

And today there was a haunted house. I wondered about this, and indeed, XX not only declined to speak to the talking head, but pulled to get out of the place. We did and wouldn't you know, there was a clacking skeletal hand coming out of a cauldron. We left quickly.

At home there was pumpkin carving and final costume fixings. Daddy made a great pitchfork and XX worked hard to put on the finishing touches.

We waited until it was nearly dark. A quick dinner and the we managed to get everyone ready and almost looking in the same direction.

XX has been wearing her costume for two days. I don't think anyone is surprised to see her dressed up, Halloween or not.

We didn't actually make it too far this evening. XX did a lot of talking to neighbors, so it took a fair amount of time. Some houses had scary decor. Daddy was sent in to do a prelim lookover at one house and when it turned out the witch lit up and spoke, XX ran in the other direction. She stepped back carefully, but wouldn't go near the door, so our neighbor gamely came out with the bowl of candy.

We didn't even make it around the block, but XX had a great time and collected quite a bit of candy as everyone gave her a lot. She happily told everyone (in great detail) she was going to eat some but give most to the soldiers. Our local children's museum is collecting candy to send overseas and XX got very excited about this idea. Guess we'll be making a trip over that way later this week.

XX said her favorite part of Halloween was passing out candy to kids and after we got home, she ran to the door everytime the doorbell rang and was also quite disappointed that not many kids came. She told everyone that they had a great costume and only flinched from a few who were pretty scary.