Tails of the alligator and the sleeping giraffe

I'm not normally a huge fan of Halloween, but Halloween with children of my own, is the best. I didn’t put too much thought into their costumes this year, we just kind of happened upon them, but they turned out great. Peanut was an alligator; he had great scaly, shiny skin and a great big tail (that he mostly used to knock over his little brother). Walnut went as a giraffe, his costume was so cute, the combination of the furry little giraffe face and those giant cheeks of walnut's peaking out were priceless.


Unfortunately, the one that works had school all night so it was just the kids and me. We spent most of the evening at my sister's house celebrating with her family, neighbors and my parents. We had dinner and then eagerly set off on the quest for candy. We quickly realized that the older kids were much faster than the rest of us. They could run to a door, knock, collect their candy and be off to the next house before we could even get our toddlers to the driveway. Inevitably, we split into two groups, the big kids and the little ones. My little alligator and giraffe stayed with me in the slow group. Peanut caught on pretty quick that a smile and a cute little "trick-or-treat" netted the most candy. By the third or fourth house he was an expert. Oh sure, it may be difficult to climb up and down front porch steps in the dark, balancing an alligator head and two foot alligator tail, but peanut did it like an expert, and if worse came to worse there was always a mommy, aunt or grandma nearby to lend a helpful hand. My chubby cheeked giraffe held out for about 45 minutes then began dozing in the little wagon we'd brought along. It was so cute to see his little giraffe head hanging over the side of the wagon in an attempt to sleep. After an hour of trick-or-treating we had more candy than I'd ever let my children eat in a lifetime, so we jetted off to Grandpa Bob and Grandma Reta's house. We happened to get there just as another couple of children were heading to the door. I stood back as Peanut headed to the door with the other children. Grandma opened the door, looked at the children and proceeded to hand out candy, when finished she said goodbye to them and proceeded to shut the door. I then stepped out and told her one of those children was her grandchild; she looked shocked but quickly discovered Peanut under that row of alligator teeth. Walnut slept through most of the visit, but Peanut and Grandma had a great time trick-or-treating through her neighborhood. We had a wonderful evening. Holidays are so much more enjoyable with children. I'm even looking forward to Christmas this year, and if you knew me you'd know that is a change.