no camera on halloween night?!!

oops. Jonathan charged the batteries for me in the morning, but I forgot to put them back in and take the camera....blah, I remembered when we were in a neighborhood several miles away. So I don't have any pictures of me with my long tangly hair braided and crowned around my head, or Mirielle (which is probably good, she wouldn't take kindly to me putting them on here!)...she had a silky scarf on her head, tied under her chin, and some really seventies sunglasses....she was trying to disguise her real age, which she did quite well. Abigail went along but didn't dress up or get candy. She just helped Camille The Princess get up when she tripped, and helped her keep her mittens on and her tu-tu pulled up. Jonathan was a reporter, wearing Mirielles' black wool coat and a hat with a "press" card in the band, Sonja was a gypsy, Suzanne was a witch with a green face...it was so cold out, she wore one of my black sweaters over her costume, so she looked a little...well, a little like a litle poor girl with a giant sweater on. Evelyn was a nurse again, Kathryn was one of the New York Yankees (she looked so authentic, the waitress in the restaurant we went to later called her, "young man", and we couldn't stop laughing), Margaret wore her long curly hair down and a black fur coat and a scarf, I don't know what she was but she sure looked purty, Charlotte Claire wore the kitty suit, and had wiskers and a little black nose drawn on her face...and two of my sister's girls dressed hilariously like the seventies with big puffy hair.....(Joseph took Samuel and a few of their friends)..

So.....my sister and I have fun no matter what we do. We waited in the van in that first neighborhood, wondering if each car that drove past us was the teacher who doesn't like "white trash". (we did consider dressing up like bums, blackening a few teeth and wearing stretch pants and huge t shirts, and our hair dirty and tangly...but we would certainly run into people we knew, or our kids' teachers, who wouldn't know we were dressed up......and it IS rather offensive. I don't really want to make fun of anyone, I am sure to other people, my lack of style and finesse is laughable...especially my Birkenstocks....)anyway, after two neighborhoods, the kids had enough candy and it was so cold out....we went to:

Chili's. I found a promotion online that all kids twelve and under could eat free from the kids' menu on Halloween, with an adult meal purchase. Any number of kids, as long as one adult bought a regular priced meal. Well....14 of us trooped into that restaurant, my younger ones were wide-eyed and excited, they had never been to a place like this before. Seven of them were 12 and under, and the rest of us paired off to order the "two meals for twenty bucks" special....well, our waitress:

1. Didn't believe our coupon really meant it was for all the kids, despite that fact that my sister had called ahead to confirm.

2. Distainfully came back from conferring with the manager, telling us he would "okay the meals for the kids, but we could NOT have the two for twenty specials."

3. Did not like it one little bit when I said I was the only one on the check with the children, the others were with my sister, therefore eligible to order specials.

4. Said, "I am ASSUMING you won't be ordering dessert!" (hmm, was it THAT apparent that we were cheapies?)

5. Took at least a half an hour after we were finished eating to bring us the checks....then she proceeded to start clearing the table while were still trying to get coats on and get out of there.

Now, I cannot go as far as speculating what I thought she was thinking of us, but.....it was not good. Her whole manner radiatiated contempt. Why did SHE care if whether the kids meals were free or not? Was she mad because we outsmarted her about the specials? Was she just having a bad day? Why was that our fault? Did she peg us for bums because of Suzanne's huge black sweater? We gave her huge tips, and were polite and nice to her, but we felt so....well, unlikeable. And it sort of made me sad, in the middle of the kids happiness to be there...they sat there so nicely and reveled in getting to choose an entree and a side and a drink that wasn't just water for once.....they didn't complain or whine or get up from the table and run around....I am truly glad they didn't get a whiff of the unwelcomeness from the waitress. I don't know, perhaps on a Sunday night, she was planning to have a slow relaxing shift, and there we were. But jeepers.....Cheryl and I of course had lots of fun with the whole thing. It hurts a little to be looked down upon, but it certainly makes for a lot of jokes to crack.

We stopped at the gas station on the way home because the big van was thirsty. I had so much saved up in Price Chopper promotions, I got $59.98 worth of gas for thirty nine cents. Yes, .39, less than half a buck. Sweet, very sweet. Every ten cents a gallon discount represents spending $50 bucks at that grocery store. So it is nice, but hey, I do my part to keep that store in business.

So we got home late. The kids wanted to dump their candy out, but it was too late. We let them look at it a little, then got them tucked in at almost eleven o'clock. There was no way they were getting up for school this morning. So now Rosie is in the cage, and there is candy all over the living room floor, sorted in rows and piles. Camille is having Froot Loops, she got a mini box of them last night, along with a new toothbrush and a box of crayons. The people in that big nice neighborhood certainly give good stuff!

Here are some things about Halloween:

1. our older kids weren't allowed to go trick or treating.

2. I went when I was a kid, and one year rain was forecast, it was a given it was going to rain. I prayed and prayed and prayed, and it didn't rain. I told everyone it was because I prayed. I really think to this day that God did that for that little girl that was me, because it made me really LIKE Him, and have confidence that He heard my prayers.

3. I don't like the skeletons and the gore or the scary monsters....I remember the year my mother had a heart attack in October, and after waiting up at the hospital for hours and hours while she had her triple-bypass, I drove home and saw the Halloween decorations and the fake graveyards and bones...and it turned my stomach. The thought that my mother, whom I loved SO much, could die....oh, I just don't like that part of Halloween.

4. The fun we have getting dressed up in mostly stuff around here is amazing.

5. I personally don't think God minds if we have fun doing things like Trick or Treating...as long as we don't judge those who think differently. He hates that.

So some of the kids are home, and it is cold in here. I should think about baking something or making an oven dinner that cooks for a while. We haven't turned the heat on yet, but it IS November now....I am staying home today. Tomorrow, I have to pick Aaron up from the airport at midnight. I will have to try and get a nap.....