Happy Halloween!

I have to admit, this is my second-favorite holiday, Christmas being the first.

Naturally, I remember well my own days spent trick-or-treating: the year I wore my dad’s flight suit and helmet, all the badges and rank stripes carefully covered with tape, and clomped around the neighbourhood in his big black boots; running from house to house with my friends (because, of course, it was perfectly acceptable by the time I was about 11 to go out with them, while my parents stayed home to hand out candy); being stumped when the old guy on the corner actually demanded a trick before handing out the candy (we sang a stumbling rendition of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer); and trading intelligence such as which house was giving out just apples or, gasp!, toothbrushes, and which was giving out full-sized chocolate bars.

Now, I’m the one trailing behind the herd of kids in the cold All Hallows Eve, cup of tea clutched in my mittened hand, as they race from door to door. (I’m the killjoy also yelling at them to use the sidewalks and walkways while the other monsters and goblins gleefully swarm over lawns – I’m just anal that way.)

My kids -- the four of them range in age from 10 to 17 -- are a creative bunch. While they enjoy a store-bought costume as well as the next ankle-biter, they also like to mix-and-match from Halloweens past, or try to come up with something on their own.

My eldest, in particular, likes to make her own costumes. This year, it’s an elaborate creation complete with robes, hat and Venetian mask – a doctor from the Assassin’s Creed video game. She is totally running with the whole trick-or-treat thing, since one of her teachers told her he thought it was perfectly fine for older teens to trick-or-treat, as long as they went to the effort of dressing up. I told her if she was still doing it at 30, I’d have to do something. (There’s that killjoy vibe again, rearing its ugly head. :lol )

My eldest son, 15, has been “too cool” -- and I’ve absolutely no doubt that particular term dates me -- to trick-or-treat for years now. However, he does like to roam the streets with his buddies, hanging and talking and doing whatever cool things 15-year-old boys do.

My youngest two, 10 and 11, still go with me. One’s a witch with purple hair, the other Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13^th movies. (And if it isn’t a sign of the times that spellcheck doesn’t blink at the name of a movie monster, I don’t know what is.)

As a way of gearing up for the night, Son No. 1 and I went out Saturday night to see Paranormal Activity 3. I was pulling for the remake of The Thing, to no avail. Now, here I freely admit I am a big suck when it comes to scary movies, particularly when it comes to ghosts or demons or anything with a supernatural bent. I think it’s probably because while my thinking brain says, nah, never happen, my lizard brain says, Run, you fool! Lizard trumps logic any day. Or night.

All that is my way of saying I was completely creeped out by PA3. I saw PA1 with Daughter No. 1 when it was in theatres and, yup, was scared silly. I was skeptical that PA3 could deliver. How many times can they do the video-camera-in-the bedroom thing? (I know, I know – thousands, perhaps millions, of videos abound on the internet to put the lie to that!) However, despite a few roll-your-eyes moments, I was scared. Wimp, right? I think the most terrifying thing was the child trying to tell her mother what was going on, and her mother didn’t believe her. If that’s not a nightmare, I don’t know what is.

Anyway, time to hit the sidewalks with my own little monsters. I’m attaching a pic of a zombie dragon created by Daughter No. 1, who is quite the artist. It's titled Beings Are Arisin'.

Boo!