This photo was taken five years ago…when he still wanted his face painted, and he still wanted to wear fake fangs on this night, and he still wanted to go trick-or-treating with his mama and daddy. This part of him is gone now, replaced with scary movies at his girlfriend’s house and conversations with his little brothers about how their trick-or-treating went.
This is the first year he didn’t go out with an old pillow case of his own, running from door to door collecting as much candy as humanly possible. I know he’s a junior in high school now, and I know that maybe this should have happened a year or two ago…but still I am having difficulty knowing he won’t trick-or-treat again until he goes with his own children (a long, long, long, long, you get the picture, long time from now).
I spent the night experiencing these as new adventures with our youngest two, just two and four years old, who are amazed at how this whole thing works…candy at every house we visited! In the back of my mind though, was the absence of our older three and the years that have zoomed by…leaving me on this night without them. Destiny out with her own friends – way too cool to go out with me, Devaney at home handing out candy (you know, one for you – two for me, so she pretty much went trick or treating without even leaving the house), and Tony at his new girlfriend’s house with some friends.
It is very bittersweet, this thing called life. Pleasant and painful. Ever-transitioning. Always a blessing.
I suppose I better keep an eye on the little boys’ candy this week…just because Tony is too old to go trick-or-treating on Halloween certainly does not mean he’s too old to eat all his brothers’ loot!
