9

That is the number:

It's 9:09 am as I start this blog;
It's 9 hours until dinner --- butternut squash soup, with a spinach salad!
We had a total of 9 (yes, we counted them) trick or treaters on Friday .....
9 /11 was when Halloween trick or treating started to become much less popular ....

I miss the days when we used to have over a 100 trick or treaters! It was crazy answering the door for that many people, but it sure was fun to see all the costumes and hear all the laughter.

Our house used to be the gathering place. My mom and step dad would come down from Yerington, and mom would make a big pot of taco soup. Jill, Drew, Dorothy, Gil and Lil, Brandon, and Tori would bring a yummy side dish or dessert and a great bottle of wine. Barney (and then later Moose and Gracie) would come along and walk with us as we took the kids door to door. Michelle would bring Autume and Elliot, Karen would bring Kristen and Ryan and Randy and Jessica would be with us too. Sometimes, Logan and Jacki would bring Courtney and Darrien, too.

The grandparents (My mom and step dad, Lil and Gill and Dorothy) would stay at the house and hand out candy to the trick or treaters. The rest of us would head out en mass and trick or treat through the entire neighborhood of about 110 houses. Throughout the neighborhood there would be several large groups of kids with their parents, all out enjoying the evening. There were kids and families everywhere!

It was frequently cold, and when our warm thermoses of hot chocolate and bailey's would run dry, the fathers would give up and take the youngest of the kids back to the house for hot apple cider and more taco soup. The oldest kids would hang on until they could not carry their load of candy, their fingers were cold, and they were exhausted.

We'd all stumble back into the house. The kids bounty of candy would be dumped on the floor so the moms could inspect it, and the kids would share their treasure with the parents and grandparents. Jill loved the "dots" and 'mike and ikes" and I always loved the "tootsie rolls" and "milk duds."

Exhausted and with a supply of candy large enough to feed a third world nation, the children would one by one, close their eyes and drift into a Halloween sleep, their bags of candy tucked firmly at their sides.

I miss those days!