It's Called Capitalism

Like any other holiday, there are parts of Halloween that I like, and parts that make me want to pull out hair. I like how the house looks when it's decorated, but I don't like undecorating the house, or the state that it's in during the in between stages (boxes strewn everywhere, fake cobwebs sticking to any porous surface, daughter playing with Mr. Snuggly the Rat.) I like trying new recipes (Easy witches hats: slightly melt the bottom of a Hershey Kiss and stick it to a flipped over fudge stripe cookie.) but there's always the risk something will go horribly wrong (I won't discuss the cheese fondue episode.) And now that the Trick-or-Treating has finished it's time for The Negotiations.

This is Daughter's haul. A large and varied bunch of tooth rotting treats. The problem is that Daughter does not like all of these treats. She does not like nuts (scratch the Snickers, Peanut M&Ms and Baby Ruth bars) nor does she like anything with caramel (out go the caramel Reeses cups and the Twix bars.) Any trace of coconut is unacceptable (goodbye Almond Joy) as is anything gummy (farewell gummy body parts of every description.) Husband and I will eat nearly any of the aforementioned problem items but there's a hitch. Daughter has earned these treats with the sweat of her brow and is unwilling to give them up without compensation. She would rather hide them in her room, never eating them, and keeping them for who knows what unholy purposes, rather than letting us just have a piece. So at this time of each year I purchase several bags of Kit Kats and we negotiate. One Snickers is worth one Kit Kat. The big Baby Ruth is obviously worth at least two, and we won't buy gummies at any price. At the end of the process everyone ends up with about 17 times more candy than anyone should really eat during a year and I'm left feeling like a fair, but still bad, mother. The dentist loves me, I'm sure.


On the knitting front, I have started the next donate item for the pile. It's another Wallaby, this one being made from the leftover green from Wallaby past and some black that I found hiding in the stash. I'm very proud of myself that I haven't purchased any yarn in the months since Stitches (except for one minor slip with the credit card and an online purveyor of discount wool, but that hardly counts.) True, I have had some delivered to me for the Interactive Sock Gang, but that was bought and paid for in August!