All Hallows Eve with the American

This time last year I was sitting on the couch with a 6 week old baby on my lap, trying desperately to get him to eat something.  After an hour long battle, he was finally chugging away quietly, when all of a sudden (dun dun dunnn.....appropriate Halloween horror suspense...) I heard the sound of little feet crunching up the gravel as the hungry chatter of an obviously large group of people approached.  Soon, my worst fears were realized...they were TRICK OR TREATERS.  And I did not have one piece of candy in the house.  For shame!

So I did what any rational adult would do.  I pretended no one was home.  I hunkered down on the couch and tried not to make any noise, there were no cars in the driveway and while the door was open, you can't see anything through our screen door anyhow, so it wouldn't look to them as if anyone was home.  The little goblins and fairies were walking away, and I was almost in the clear when (dun dun duuunn....) the quiet baby on my lap suddenly became NOT quiet.  And to make matters worse, the blinds were open right above the couch I was sitting on.  And I think one of the little fairy girls saw me.  I have never been so ashamed to call myself American.* It's our fault that this culture trick-or-treats anyhow.  Without American movies, the odd phenomenon of a bunch of kids roaming around to strangers houses and asking for candy would just seem (let's be honest here) really creepy.

So this year, I was obviously way more prepared.  I bought candy ahead of time and had Trip in his costume ready to greet trick-or-treaters.

So this year, I was exactly as prepared as I was last year.  Doh!  As the first kid came by I thought "crap!  What do I do?  I HAVE to give him something!"  When I remembered the stash of American candy that Mom brought over for me in August.  Score!  So I grabbed my tootsie rolls, Riesen, and salt water taffy, and handed them out to the little pirate.

And swore that next year I would be more prepared!  I always forget how much I love holidays until the holiday itself is upon us.  Turns out that I have absolutely no talent whatsoever when it comes to planning ahead.  It's something I'm working on. At least  now there is this little person who is totally reliant on me and needs me to plan everything for him, so that should help my progress.  Why can't I just admit to myself that I am the type of person who LOVES to celebrate any and all holidays, and just PLAN on celebrating them?  Instead I wait until the day is upon us, and I get really REALLY excited that it's HalloweenChristmas4thofJuly, but then the day is ruined because I feel so sad that I am not doing anything to celebrate.  Sigh. What an annoying and lame problem to have, right?  So next year.  Next year I will be the Awesome American who always has candy from the States.  And I'll give out my candy, which everyone with LOVE because while Australians have got the chocolate thing down, their selection of chewy candy, in my opinion, really sucks.  So I'll give out this awesome candy, and all the kids will love it, but then forget about it as they grow up, but then, when they travel overseas when they're 18 or 24 and find a Riesen (which is good because it is chewy and chocolate, therefore satisfying two different criteria on the candy cravings scale) and they will be all like, "WOAH!  I remember these!  I used to get them from that woman down the street from me!  She was so cool!  And young!  And so well prepared for every holiday ever!"

So you see, I've got it all planned out.  And if I actually learned anything from this lesson here, I would stop making imaginary preparations for a holiday that is still a year away, and start to make real preparations for one that is just a month away.**  And the really big holiday that is a month after that that I will have absolutely no time to do anything for at the time because the bakery will be ridiculously busy.  Crap.  I'm behind already aren't I?

What happens when you don't plan ahead for holidays and you have to steal your one-year old son's costume. Which you only have because your mother PLANNED.  AHEAD. and sent it to you.  One can only assume she's had lots of practice planning ahead for the little people in her life.  And hopefully one day you will be just as good at it as she is.

xox
Cara


*Okay, this is a gross exaggeration.  There haven't been too many times in my life when I've been ashamed of being American, but not having candy isn't really one of them.  I just thought it sounded appropriately dramatic.  (Also....did anyone else's brain light up with a blinking "Bush?" sign when they first read that sentence?)

**Thanksgiving.  I'm talking about Thanksgiving, which is at the end of November.  And while Australians don't celebrate it - they never had Pilgrims afterall, and they have their own stories of how the new settlers interacted with the Indigenous population.  Plus, they think that pumpkin pie is really really weird.  This house will still (always!) celebrate it.  Because I see nothing wrong with a holiday that is focused around being with family, saying thanks to everything you have to be grateful for , and eating lots and lots of food.