Pumpkin Carving In Lieu Of Wine.

Last year, on Halloween, I was dodging children walking up the steps of my brownstone in Boston.

"Trick-or-treat?!?!" they unison-ed. 

I was on my way out to meet Frogger for dinner. And I didn't have any candy in my hands. Nor had I bothered to buy any in advance.

"Oh!" I began my lie, "I don't live here! I was just stopping by to see a friend. He lives in apartment three. You should buzz him!"

Apartment three was the single chap who never shoveled in the Winter time, or bothered to pick up his mail downstairs. 

I ran down the steps and hailed a cab to some neighborhood where I food and wine awaited me.

And that was a step up for me, in terms of Halloween.

Since about 2000, I hadn't really done much to celebrate the day. Every time I bought candy to pass out, children never showed up to collect it. There were many years where I'd sit at home, the doorbell never ringing... And I'd end up giving the candy to Newman (my husband at the time) to take to work.

Children just never seemed to circulate in our energy.

This year though, I timed my monthly visit to Phoenix around Halloween. Which means I got to spend time with the "littles" crew carving pumpkins and (tomorrow evening) participating in the Halloween festivities.

It started off earlier this week with visiting these two...

I refer to them as The Pirate and M-Cat.

The Pirate wanted to decorate one of his pumpkins as a...

Pirate!

Later in the week (tonight) finds me on the opposite side of Phoenix, staying with this guy...

This is The Peanut. He was adamant about getting his hands dirty and scooping out the innards of his two pumpkins.  One of which ended up with Lightening McQueen carved into it...

I'm grateful that I get to see some of these moments from their childhood. Had I not moved back West, I'd be missing out on them. And while these moments may pass quickly, I still like being able to witness them.

It definitely beats dodging other people's kids on Halloween for wine.