The trick for the treat

What a fun day we had! But I will confess this right at the start: last year, on Halloween, I fussed at Aidan, big-time, and have felt guilty about it ever since. In fact, "fussing" at him is kind of putting it mildly... on the other hand, I cannot recall what happened, I can only recall my guilt. (Never mind that Aidan most certainly does not remember) So, this year I was bound and determined that I would have extra patience with Aidan, no matter what happened, because I wanted him to have an extra-fun Halloween.......
.... and we did. We decorated and frosted pumpkin cookies in the morning, did some coloring and stamping with Halloween stamps, and talked on and on about the evening's events that consumed every thought in his mind. He told me that (imaginary friend) Boy was dressed up as a pumpkin this year and (his sister) Fishnika was going out as an artichoke. We practiced trick-or-treating with Leo, whose favorite part, at that point in the day, was knocking on the door. He would run away when I opened it!
We trick-or-treated early at the Martells, and Aidan loved seeing Julie in her candy corn costume. Julie is crazy about candy corn, and there's been an ongoing joke that she ate all the candy corn at my parents' house. So several times before Halloween, Julie presented Aidan with a bag of candy corn, and another bag again yesterday. On the drive back to our house, munching on his thousandth candy corn of the season, Aidan observed, "Mrs. Martell gives out a LOT of candy corn!"
...and that's when the mischief began, and I really had to remind myself of my "no fussing" rule. It was time for the Roths and my parents to arrive for dinner, and Aidan could not contain his enthusiasm. He was beginning to drive me crazy because his excitement was bordering on being completely out-of-control. But as the chaos of dinner, costuming, and trick-or-treating began, and intensified with each new part, I realized how much fun everyone was having, and remembered from my own childhood how great it is to have that rare, nearly out-of-control excitement and enthusiasm.
Of course, trick-or-treating was terrific. Leo insisted on carrying his own bag of candy (even when it grew quite heavy), insisted on helping himself to treats at each door, and then politely signed "thank you" to each neighbor before marching his mouse self back down the drive. Midway through, Clancy and I left the kids with the dads and Grandpa and snuck back to our house to join both our moms, who were contentedly handing out candy and drinking wine.
So there's my trick for the treat - letting go and enjoying the craze and the chaos.