Trick-or-Treating Through Time 🧙‍♀️

I've always been a Halloween girl. Not the glittery-princess kind. A witch. Every single year.

I never understood why someone would dress up to look pretty. I wanted a broomstick, a wart, and maybe a black cat if the costume budget allowed. My other ritual? Watching the movie Houdini while eating candy I pretended to inspect for safety.

Years later, when I had kids, I finally got the other side of Halloween. How you could dress up, be someone else, and look good doing it. One year I was a flapper and Bob was Babe Ruth in a baseball uniform. He looked like he was about to sign autographs. I looked like I'd been time-traveled from a speakeasy.

For years we were that house. The one where all the trick-or-treaters and their exhausted parents ended up after making the rounds. I made a massive pot of chili. Warm, cozy, and somewhere along the way it became a neighborhood tradition.

I still make that chili. Just for Bob and me now, or whatever kids happen to be around. The front door doesn't swing open like it used to and the candy bowl isn't as bottomless.

But I still get the same thrill seeing kids in costume. I still root for the good weather Halloweens: no wind, no cold, no rain to smother the spirit.

Some things you just don't outgrow.

A broomstick and a memory or two are always coming with me. 🧙♀️