Our Halloween started out mellow and ended up sort of crazy at the end. We took Gavin to our ward's trunk-or-treat (which lasted all of 15 minutes - the perfect amount of time for an easily distracted 2 1/2-year-old) the day before Halloween where he got his first taste of cotton candy. The next day we started out carving pumpkins around 5:00, and then the craziness began. We had intended to let Gavin run around in his dinosaur costume while I leisurely made doughnuts and Casey handled the trick-or-treaters. As is the norm for my life, my delusions of grandeur and perfection were politely snuffed out by reality.
I didn't realize that making pizza at the same time we carved pumpkins was not a good idea, and then our neighbors came over (causing us to also have to act as hosts) and we didn't get our pumpkins carved until 9:30 pm! I'm fairly certain we were the only ones to see them lit, because we brought them back in (ha! Would-be teenage pumpkin-smashers were foiled!) an hour later. My kitchen was a disaster what with pumpkin guts, pizza dough and doughnut ingredients everywhere, and with the constant stream of trick-or-treaters and associated expectations of "ooohs" and "ahhhs" from the parents of kids we know, the doughnuts weren't done until 10:30. Amidst all of this, Gavin barely put on his costume long enough for our neighbors to see and us to take a few pictures, and then he was totally done with it and it was his bedtime. Sheesh!
It was fun, though. I couldn't do it without my patient husband, who never outright squashes my delusions although he knows they are impossible. He is always there to support me through it and then gently pick up the pieces of my perfectionist mishaps as I descend into sharp self-realization. Maybe next year I'll dress up as a normal person for Halloween and leave the mental issues behind.
