A safe Halloween. Trick or treating at home

Happy Halloween everyone. Not what we all wanted but about what we all were expecting, huh? What a year. What a time to be alive.

The world goes round around us. Seasons turning, summer progressing to autumn, to winter.

And in the meantime, there is one in my family who has reached the age of understanding trick or treating for candy. Not our little Zephyr. He's still blissfully happy just to be cuddled by his cousin Isla.

But that one! Do you see him? The little hedgehog in the back. Nate, my little 2 yr old.

My children and I were wondering how to make this first Halloween, the Halloween of his understanding, special to him...to all of them; who we will not risk out in the hood, (no matter how safe our hood may be). And we came up with a Halloween at home treasure hunt. All my grandchildren were dressed in their costumes and they rang the doorbell. "Trick or Treat!!!" Then they came in and ran around the house finding groups of 5 treats which they could each pick one of.

There were candy treats of course, but also Halloween pencils, creepy crawlies, gamepads, glow sticks and necklaces, squishy balls shaped like sheep, hedgehogs and teddies. Basically a ton of $1 store fluff for fun.

And then! And then they could sit down, spill their treasures on the livingroom floor, and eat their fill. Until there was a pile of wrappers! I swear the look in out Nate's eyes was like, "What? Candy? All I want? What?"That's right. One day of sugar hell children, and then back to substantially fewer treats per day.

And after they couldn't eat any more candy if they tried, and after it was waaaay past bedtime for some... we lit sparklers in a spare pumpkin and had our own little light show. It was a magical Halloween to remember.