The day after Halloween, Parker woke up and said, "Trick or treat?!"
Ahhh no SweetP, we only get to do that once a year. Sadly.
As the child of a blended family, meaning my biological parents got divorced when I was about 1 and both were remarried by the time I was about 3. I have three sisters and two brothers, but they are not all part of the same family and range in age from 33 to 19.
This means just about every holiday I have celebrated from the time I was old enough to know the joys of birthday cake, the wonderfulness of Santa and how perfectly paired cranberry sauce and turkey can be, I have blessed with the pleasure of pulling double duty holiday-wise.
Santa visited both my mom's and dad's houses in addition to my Magraw's house and occasionally an aunt or uncle's house.
That Santa is good people.
My Christmas would start on Christmas Eve and end sometime around June, which was perfect since my birthday is in July!
Throughout my childhood, nearly the entire month of November was filled with turkey, family and pumpkin pie. I never tired of it because each family had it's own tradition, it's own take on gravy, it's own rules about who gets the wishbone. There was a sense of similarity, but overwhelming uniqueness.
Now that I am married with a family, we are developing our own traditions, our own gravy and we eat ham on Thanksgiving, so no wishbone rules here.
As I was thinking about all of this-life as a series of celebrations- I thought of how lucky I was/am. I mean my biological parents did me a HUGE favor in ending their marriage. They work best when they are not together. I have a enough siblings to never be alone- ever. I know and am related to a ton of amazing people.
It dawned on me though, the only holiday I never got two of was Halloween.
Trick or treating at my mom's neighborhood on October 31 with that set of siblings was super fun, but if I had ever gone to my dad's house the following day and tried to trick or treat, I probably would have gotten Charlie Brown's leftover rocks.
It is the only holiday I can think of that you absolutely cannot celebrate twice.
Even the Fourth of July can be celebrated at different times of the month without too much eye batting at your hot dog, firecracker Popsicle and the slightly misplaced bombs bursting in air. Just this past 4th my home town had at least 3 different celebrations.
I know Ptreat LOVED Halloween, but I have a feeling days of endless Christmas presents; our house, my parent's house, P's aunt's house, my uncle's house (the list goes on), will help him get over the post-trick or treat doldrums.
