Howl

"You said he could howl as much as he wanted" said J,looking at me with a 'let's see you wriggle out of that one' kind of stare.

And he was right,I did say that and at the time I meant it,truly I did but even I was beginning to want to yell Noooooo half way around the trick or treat route as Chips happily howled his way around the houses on our street....it was a pretty piercing howl and it seems there is only so much howling any one person can take without all of a sudden yelling Nooooooo. 

The howling didn't stop. And I settled down once more. After all it was Halloween and you were all having such good fun and I had said you could howl as much as you liked...bad mistaka to maka.

We had ended up trick or treating with quite a few kids,Chips was a wolf,his friend J was a spook,other characters included a girl pirate,a witch and a adult ghostie who danced at the bottom of every drive just for added entertainment,it was quite a gang and it made trick or treating easy,there's safety in numbers and in amongst a crowd the kids felt happy and secure. They raced up drives together and chanted 'trick or treat' to whoever opened the door.

We only visited houses that had pumpkins outside as we figured they liked Halloween and would welcome trick or treaters and everybody seemed pleased to see the children and our dancing ghost. One house had a real dressed up witch come to the door,she was very spooky and half amused/half frightened the children to death. I made a mental note that there was a real witch living at the back of us,I'll not walk up there in the dark on my own!

The weather was kind to us and although there was a chill in the air,the rain held off and it was fun walking around in the dark starry night. Chips really noticed the stars,they were twinkling brightly in the dark sky.

When we got home,we were whacked. A busy school day,then swim lessons,rounded off by a night of roaming up and down the village calling 'trick or treat' had taken its toll on us. We sat snuggled ( or even maybe slumped ) on the sofa and Chips tucked into lots of treats,he managed to collect 27 pieces of candy and yes he did count them all!

That night at bedtime he was even too tired for a bedtime story,just a few na nites were said,a few kisses had and then a very tired little boy drifted off to sleep. Later that night I listened to him sleeping,the rhythm of his breathing was so steady and comforting,it made me smile.

So after all my worries about not doing enough for Halloween this year,it turns out that we did indeed have a good time...phew!