Trick-or-Treat, Smell my Feet

Halloween was kind of fun this year, because for the first time in my life, I was a homeowner handing out candy to kids in the neighborhood. I opened the door to everything from two-year-olds in princess outfits, to five-year-old power rangers to thirteen-year-old kids with pillow cases (they generally don't dress up). It was so much fun to give them candy and watch their little eyes sparkle, especially the really little ones.
When it came to buying candy, we stockpiled. We bought so much candy, I thought for sure we'd have enough left over to last till our first anniversary. Reeses and Snickers and Skittles and Butterfingers and Twix and Nut Rolls (for the parents)...a myriad of sugary delights and Lord knows a couple days worth of belly aches for kids of all ages.
We never trick-or-treated growing up, but we never really missed out, either. We didn't get to dress up, but we did that on our own time anyhow. Mom always seems to buy "too much" candy so that we all got our fair share. I remember one time when I was 12 or 13 I had a friend over on Halloween. We wanted to go trick-or-treating, so instead my dad gave us each $20 and sent us down to the gas station to buy as much candy as we could with that budget! (Dad, I have a confession: Patty and I stopped at houses along the way to get more candy.) When we passed out candy, we would first staple a tract to it so the kids got both.
We also had another "tradition" in our home: no scary jack-o-lantern faces. We loved carving pumpkins, but istead of faces we'd carve things like crosses and fish and words like "Jesus." What a cool way to evangelize to all of the kids and parents walking around on Halloween!
I don't really have a point to these remembrances. I just like thinking about them. It really has no "blog value"...except may just to say thanks, Mom and Dad, for laying such a wholesome foundation full of such fond memories.