The Candy Mountain

I love Halloween.  Not the scary stuff, not the celebration of the dark side.  If you do it right, Halloween is a terrific neighborhood night.  I like it when parents bring their little ones to the door.  I love it that all my neighbors set up in their driveways to hand out candy; that the kids gang up and trick-or-treat together, then have a big candy exchange to trade for their favorites.  And let's face it, I like candy.

This was my two sons' haul from Saturday night.  They're trick-or-treat veterans and they know how to work it.  Use pillow cases--they hold way more than those pumpkin buckets.  Hit the right neighborhoods between 7 and 9 PM.  Be charming at the door.  It's all about volume.

Because I'm just that retentive, I sorted all the chocolate out of this pile and weighed it.  The Snickers, Three Musketeers, Kit Kat and Hershey Bars, and my personal favorite, Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, weighed in at a whopping 6 lbs.!  That does not include the M&Ms, or the gallon ziplock bag full of Starburst, Tootsie Rolls, Sweet Tarts and Smarties.  They had so much candy that we had to purge.  I actually swept lesser candies off the counter and into the trash when the boys weren't looking.  Someone had the audacity to put in a low-cal popcorn ball.  Probably a dentist.

Maybe we should do this more often: stand in the driveway and hand out gifts to people who come by.  Maybe soup, or a slice of pizza next time.