We had a low-key Halloween this year. Our Halloweens are usually low-key, but this year was a really low-key year. A few weeks before Halloween, there was talk about having a socially-distant trunk-or-treat at the embassy compound. When I asked the children if they'd rather do that or stay home for a bonfire and candy hunt, they all decided - given that the candy haul would be comparable - to stay home for the bonfire.
So my normally half-hearted Halloween efforts got even less so, and I managed to buy the kids off with fifteen minutes of candy hunting and no costumes whatsoever. 2020 for the win.
As Brandon and I were hiding candy around the yard ("Hey Mom, will it be in Easter eggs? We still have some of them!" Nope kids, that would mean stuffing them first. Why should I go to the trouble?), I remarked that it felt like we had just been hiding candy for Easter. Of course Easter was six months ago, but that's how time goes these days.
They children all loved the hunt, and then happily divvied up the loot afterwards while Brandon and I got the bonfire going. Earlier, when I was trying to explain to William about the evening's activities, he got very confused about whether we were going to have roasted candy or roasted marshmallows. When I explained to him that we would roast the marshmallows - not the candy - he got very indignant. "No Mom! I don't want to! Because marshmallows are disgusting and candy ISN'T!!!"
But in the end, the joke was on him, because he fell asleep before we made it to the marshmallow roasting part of the evening. It was probably just fine for his pancreas, however.
We finished the evening with the Lovecraft story "The Rats in the Walls," which understandably freaked out all the surviving children (William, Eleanor, and Elizabeth were in bed). I'm not sure what Brandon is going to read for bonfires after he runs through all the Lovecraft stories.
Everyone was bathed and in bed a little after eight, so I call the evening a win. I guess all of 2020 hasn't been that bad.