madmonkmcelroys: Trick-or-Treating Etiquette

Trick-R-Treating Etiquette . . .

1) ring door 1x

2) do not bang on door until someone comes

3) stay outside the person's house

4) do not be choosy about the treat you receive

5) do not look in windows

6) say thank you

Mad Monk's parents were in town for Halloween this year. We had a blast with all the traditional activities, including a few more . . . read down for the need for the the Etiquette portion.

First there was pumpkin carving. Big E thinks pumpkins stink so wouldn't touch the gooey stuff inside. It was to gross apparently. Special K, on the other hand dug right in . . . with a spoon. If Big E won't touch it, neither will he, but it isn't going to stop him from doing it :) When we pushed the issue, he pointed out that Mad Monk was also using a spoon. Touche.

Big E was very interested in designing his pumpkin though. Notice the "hook" on the side . . .

Then there was dinner. Since we enjoy making things festive around here, dinner was no different. We had Mummy Dogs, Witch's Fingernails, Bat Wings with Sauce and Witch's Brew. We had monster toes for dessert.

Now it's time to trick-or-treat. Big E is Captain Rex, from Star Wars. No one really knows who he is unless they suffered through the new animated Star Wars movie for their children. This causes a lot of explaining by a 5 year old when he is asked if he is everything BUT Captain Rex. Special K is "Darth Vaaaaaador" Now you have to say it in just that way and by lowering your voice when you say "Vaaaador" as low as it can go and say it very slowly. Most knew who he was.

Now both Big E AND Special K have trick-or-treated before. We've gone over the routine, they know the drill . . . or at least we THOUGHT they did until the first house, when they rang the doorbell 5 times and then started banging on the door. Mad Monk and Darling B look at each other and mention that we might need to refresh on our T-R-T skills.

At the second house, we hoped they'd use the few new skills we taught them in between house one and house two like ringing the door 1x, no banging on the door, saying trick-or-treat and thank you. They again rang the doorbell a couple of times b/c they were fighting over who got to ring it then immediately said trick-r-treat before anyone opens the door. When the nice woman opened the door then stepped back in to get the treats, my lovely Darth Vaaaaaador and Captain Rex walk right into her house then proceed to tell her what they like and what they don't in terms of the treats she was offering. Okay . . . now we need to talk about etiquette.

It got much better from there after a few houses of yelling trick-r-treat immediately following ringing the bell and looking in the windows so they can yell back -- some one's coming.

Grandma and Pap Pap stayed back at the house and Grandma put on her witch costume. We decided to stop by and trick-r-treat at our house when we passed by to the other part of the community. Special K didn't know who Grandma was and Grandma (the witch) kept saying in a Witchy voice, "don't you want to come in to my house?" Special K, very politely said no the first time. The second time, he said no a little louder. The third time he yelled NO! We thought he just didn't want to go in. Well, no that wasn't the case. He didn't know who the witch was and when she tried the 4th time he started crying. We realized then that we never have to worry about Special K going with anyone he doesn't know, he'll be very clear that he DOES NOT want to go. See we knew this "specialness" would be useful!