NaBloPoMo?

When I was a kid, we didn't go trick-or-treating, per se, since we lived not in a neighborhood but on 10 acres that felt (three decades ago, and from a kid's perspective) like the middle of nowhere. Instead, Halloweens usually consisted of some combination of a church "fall festival" and hopping in the car to make the rounds to grandparents, assorted relatives and family friends. Needless to say, we scored a lot of candy.

Matt's Halloweens growing up were more traditional: Every year he and his brothers met up with a group of friends from his neighborhood and they hit up all the houses in walking distance. Then some of the parents drove them to other neighborhoods, where they piled out and repeated the process. So they ended up with a lot of candy too.

This is the first year both Claire and Evan were old enough to sort of understand the concept of trick-or-treating, so we went for it. We met up with Riley and Reece, plus Parker and Lila, whose parents are friends of ours and Jacob and Carrie's, and whose grandparents also happen to live on our street. Mom and Dad came by beforehand for photo ops and candy delivery, Carrie's mom and sisters joined us for the actual trick-or-treating, and we made our way up and down our street and a couple of others nearby.

I got a kick out of watching our little group race from house to house and door to door. After the first couple of houses, they realized there was no catch -- ring the doorbell, receive candy, move on -- and got a little giddy. And we adults were free to hang back and enjoy the show. The weather was nice, the kids were champs, and afterward, we all grilled hot dogs and dug into the loot. It was a good night.