i am elephant, hear me roar…

oscarelephant

erm, well…this littlest elephant’s roaring was really quite cheery. we had a lovely Hallowe’en. since our house, being situated across from the liquor store, doesn’t exactly draw a lot of the kiddie set, we trekked off to Oscar’s Nannie’s to indulge in my family tradition of storebought cupcakes for every holiday under the sun. this brought me back (cue violins) to all the Hallowe’ens i spent licking garish orange icing off chocolate cupcakes with my Nannie, lo these many years past, which was all very nice…and it just made me smile to watch all the little ghouls and goblins trotting about with their loot, kicking at leaves. Oscar didn’t care so much about loot, but was pretty taken with Nannie’s jack-o-lantern.

punkin once we were replete with cupcakey goodness (and some actual supper), we waddled off before bed for just one trick-or-treating stop at the witch lady’s house, a famous local staple of all things Hallowe’enie. the witch lady has been decorating her place within an inch of its life and dressing up and handing out homemade fudge for forty years now, more or less. when i was a kid, she scared the living bejeebus out of me…and did the same for O this year, though i think he was more overwhelmed than scared.  witches are still new, y’know, in his worldview.  i felt about nine years old again marching up to her door, threading our way up the pumpkin-lit lane, grinning at the very same ghost in her tree that haunted me back when i was small. and the witch lady, a great kid herself, doing all this all these years just for joy, cackled and cooed over Oscar.  he refused her offers of a warty hug, so no pictures were captured, alas. but her fudge? amazing. and she throws an extra packet in the treat bag for the parents of the little ones, bless her heart.

just for this - for being able to take Oscar out for his first real trick-or-treating Hallowe’en and actually eat the homemade fudge that someone’s gone to the trouble to make - this was worth moving back home for.

happy Hallowe’en to you. and boo!