Halloween Nightmares

Today Carter convinced me that we needed a Halloween costume for Shay Shay this year.  Since Carter will have just had her knee operated on and certainly won’t be dressing up I thought it was the least I could do to celebrate the season.

Amazingly enough while we were at Pet Smart buying food we found the 75% off Halloween costumes and it is a whole week before the holiday.  We considered a ladybug, but it required Shay to wear a hat and she was not happy with that plan.  Then we saw a shark fin.  Cute, but it had the great possibility of sliding down and looking like a giant grey appendage more fitting for a boy dog than our princess Shay.

Then we spotted the perfect outfit for both Carter and Shay.  A jockey and saddle turning Shay into the horse he is riding on.  At first wearing Shay kept looking behind her to see what monkey was on her back, but then she settled into her role as steed.  We think she is going to wait until our backs are turned and then grab that little man off her back and rip him to shreds looking for his squeaker.  That will be no problem since the whole outfit only cost $2.97.

Halloween is not my holiday.  When Carter was little I did get into making her costumes, which were more like works of art.  My favorite was the year I made her into a garden.  Another year when she was really into reading The Magic Tree House books I make her a book.  I framed it after Halloween and it hangs by the bathroom now.

Today I went to Spooky Mah Jongg at my friend De’s house.  Now there is a woman who is really into Halloween.  There were hundreds of pumpkins, skulls, mummies skeletons and all things gross like rats and bloody arms all around the outside and inside of her house.  When De lived in Atlanta she used to put on a full blown haunted house.  She says what we saw today was just a portion of what she used to put out.

Not only does she have all the decorations but also bowls of candy are everywhere.

This is why I can’t have anything to do with Halloween.  One tiny Heath bar leads to a fun size Butterfinger, to three full size Reese’s peanut butter cups and forty-eight candy corns.  Candy cannot even be a treat for me because it tricks me into eating more of it.   And then begins the slide into holiday eating hell.

This year I am vowing not to have one bite of Halloween candy.  I’ve already eaten more than my quota with the chocolate covered cranberries.  So don’t offer me a small bag of M&M’s or a Sugar Daddy.  I need to Pope-like and abstain.