Happy Halloween!

Let's get in the Halloween mood with few jokes:

This guy goes to a Halloween party with a girl on his back.
"What on earth are you?" asks the host.
"I'm a snail," says the guy.
"But... you have a girl on your back," replies the host.
"Yeah, he says, "that's Michelle!"

Hans and Stein were playing in their yard in Zurich when one of the boys accidentally swallowed a coin and started
choking.
Hans ran inside to get help, yelling "Mom! Dad! Come quick! There's a franc in Stein!"

Well, that put me in the Halloween spirit! It always sneaks up on me- i always forget to make a costume, carve a jack-o-lantern, or put up any decorations. Before I know it, we have to run to the store to buy candy from the picked-over selection for the trick-or-treaters coming by that night.

While I admit that there are neither pumpkin faces on the porch nor ghosts and ghouls around my house, I feel incredibly prepared for Halloween this year. Our visitors will have a wide selection of candy including M&M's, Snickers, Reese's peanut butter cups, and Kit Kats. To top things off, I even found a costume: a $4.26 Spiderman suit from Goodwill (complete with a mask and gloves). I hope to get a few compliments when I go trick-or-treating.

And thus comes the long and historic debate: how old is too old to go trick-or-treating? Personally, I think I am too old to go. Not that I wouldn't love to, don't get me wrong, but I remember being that little purple princess who was afraid of running into the dreaded high-schoolers. There was never a doubt in my mind that before the night was over, I would end up getting my hat or candy taken away.

So why am I going? I made the exception this year because it is not just for the candy. This year, a few of my friends have foreign exchange students that have never celebrated Halloween before (at least, not the way we do). We cannot let them leave America without celebrating one of its classic traditions. So we will dress up, leading them from house to house and teaching them the art of "Trick-or-treat!"

This year should be a blast, but I will try to stay out of the way of the elementary school-age kids. No one needs to be frightened by potential real-world things on a Halloween night. It should be a night of creativity, where the only thing that scares you is your own wild imagination.