the things that change.

I normally work 12 hours every Sunday. This year I switched with a co-worker and worked 12 hours Saturday so I could have Sunday off - thought being that this was probably the last year my oldest would want to go trick or treating with us.

Turns out, last year was the last year he wanted to go trick or treating at all. These small milestones seem to hit me harder than the bigger ones. They sort of sneak up on you and knock you off your feet. You expect loose teeth. The disbelief in Santa Claus. First girlfriends. Puberty. Those are all things that are sort of major and you are prepared for them, you know they are coming. But then there are the smaller things, that you sort of forget about until they happen. Like the little boy that you have dressed up and walked house to house with for a decade deciding that he is way too cool for that now. It's like every Halloween for the last 10 years is suddenly etched so very clearly in my mind. The toddler in the Tigger costume. The years spent as some form of a ninja or skeleton in a robe or some variation of the two. My favorite costume, last year, as a wizard. The early years spent making it around just one block. Coffee in hand, sometimes in the rain, sometimes in the snow - reminding him to use his thank yous - prompting the saying of trick or treat.

 2009

Oh, my youngest still loves the holiday, I think he may love it even more than Christmas. So I still trudged through the streets last night, hot buttered rum in hand instead of the coffee of my younger years. Since my youngest was born, 7 years ago, we have had lovely Halloweens. No snow. Warm nights. This year we returned to a day of hail, rain and snow - with a dash of sunshine. The night was as cold as when I began the yearly ritual.

 it's hard to tell with all the layers, but Colin was Ash from pokemon. he's currently obsessed.

So Evan spent this year sitting on Nana's porch, in full costume - scaring the kids that came to the door. I guess a new tradition begins.