Our Costumes Aren't Ready Yet

Cinderella's Carriage

A giant pumpkin is sitting on my patio.  I passed it this morning and my stomach dropped.  I am an unfit blogger and they my ban me from the internet if I don't start posting Halloween decorations.

This pumpkin was (is) going to be Cinderella's carriage.  I carved one in college for the pumpkin carving contest and lost but got on the front page of the college newspaper.  Fat lot of good it did me in college when I needed the coat and the grocery gift card.

But THIS TIME it was going to bring me more page views and Pinterest followers.  Except it's not done and I got a Pinterest email two days ago called "Last Minute Halloween Ideas."  

Isn't Halloween next week?  Last minute is sending your 4-year-old trick-or-treating in his camouflaged warm-ups with...

The 4-yr-old neighbor is decorating our porch

sticks taped to his toy construction helmet.  I feel like I need to justify this by saying: He decided the "Police Bat" costume he had been dictating and overseeing for the entire month wasn't what he wanted after all.

And there's the rub.  I shouldn't feel like I have to justify it.  Halloween is supposed to be fun, not a competitive sport. 

With candy depleted one year, I started giving out the alphabet stickers I bought at the dollar store to teach my kids their letters.  One teenage boy looked in his bag and said, "Oh cool.  Letters."  Why don't grown-ups have that attitude to the unexpected?

I'm not saying decorating for Halloween (and other holidays) shouldn't be done early - or every day!  Holidays are fun.  Just lighten the Frankenstein up about it.  

If we trick-or-treat by your house and you are giving out the stuff your kids got from the treasure box at school, I won't tell a soul.