Half-Price Sugar Sugar
Halloween is a holiday for the entire family. Little kids go trick-or-treating, big kids go to parties, and parents buy cheap merchandise after the holiday. November 1st is the day I look forward to like a little kid lying awake at night, unable to sleep, hoping to catch the Great Pumpkin in the act. What other day of the year can you buy Peanut Butter Cups for half price?
In years past, I went nuts at the post-holiday sales. Our family is still young, so we need everything, from yard decorations to costumes to 2-foot tall candy bowls with life-size goblin feet that scream when someone reaches in for candy. Plus my body is still young enough to tolerate the consumption of a dozen fun size Snickers bars in a 24-hour period, so I need to take advantage of that while it lasts.
I think I hit my limit this year, though. Thanks to our earlier efforts, we already have more junk than we have the space or time to put out. I was disappointed that I never had the chance to set up my glowing corpse in the front yard, as were our neighbors I’m sure. The last thing we need is to waste money on more decorations that we’ll just have to move in a few months and we might never use anyway. As far as the candy goes, we now have three children worth of treats to eat, and my metabolism must be slowing down, so the thought of acquiring more candy made me sick. I didn’t want one more high-sugar, high-fat, crinkly-wrappered treat to enter our home unless it had the words “peanut butter cup” on the wrapper.
Nevertheless, I packed up the kids and went to the local big box store yesterday afternoon. The kids still needed costumes for next year, and Ellie had a couple specific decorations she wanted. I could deal with a couple specific decorations; it’s the aimless wandering of aisles buying bulky impulse items I wanted to avoid. Plus, I felt a compulsive need to explore the half-off merchandise.
To my disappointment, most of the merchandise was gone by the time I arrived that afternoon. All the other vulturous stay-at-home parents must have picked it clean before I had a chance to. They were out of Ellie’s requested decoration, a lighted pumpkin formed of twigs. Instead she had to settle for a lighted squash made of twigs.
My main objective, though, was to find costumes for the kids for next year. Abbie’s current costume, a fairy princess, will fit next year, but after wearing it four times for a total of approximately six hours, it’s falling apart. The skirt is torn in three places, and while it still looks okay, large chunks are threatening to disembark from the costume and form green glittering icebergs on the sidewalk.
They had plenty of little girl costumes, but they were all kind of, well, slutty. They had a skin-tight cat suit with choke collar, a genie costume with exposed midriff, and a witch’s outfit with a miniskirt hemmed well above the knees. No daughter of mine is going trick-or-treating dressed like that; she’ll freeze with so little skin covered. After searching for the warmest costume, I found a glitter fairy. It’s pretty much exactly the same as this year’s costume except blue, so I’ll probably have to replace it next year too.
Next I needed costumes for the boys. We have a tiger costume left over from Abbie last year that should fit, so I just need one more. Most boy costumes are of the superhero variety, and most superheroes have the sense to cover up when it’s cold. Plus the sculpted muscles on the costumes leave adequate room for extra insulation if needed. Unfortunately, every costume I found fit boys ages 4 and up, and not even my incompetent laundry skills could shrink an outfit that much. Finally I found a Frankenstein costume that fit my criteria of a) fitting and b) covering most exposed skin.
With costumes in the cart, I wandered the aisles for other good deals. I picked up a few Halloween-themed shirts for the kids next year that seemed cheap until I realized that they’d only be able to wear them during the month of October. Otherwise, I bought nothing else. I proceeded to checkout with only the things I intended to buy, namely the costumes. Oh, and a bag of Peanut Butter Cups.
In years past, I went nuts at the post-holiday sales. Our family is still young, so we need everything, from yard decorations to costumes to 2-foot tall candy bowls with life-size goblin feet that scream when someone reaches in for candy. Plus my body is still young enough to tolerate the consumption of a dozen fun size Snickers bars in a 24-hour period, so I need to take advantage of that while it lasts.
I think I hit my limit this year, though. Thanks to our earlier efforts, we already have more junk than we have the space or time to put out. I was disappointed that I never had the chance to set up my glowing corpse in the front yard, as were our neighbors I’m sure. The last thing we need is to waste money on more decorations that we’ll just have to move in a few months and we might never use anyway. As far as the candy goes, we now have three children worth of treats to eat, and my metabolism must be slowing down, so the thought of acquiring more candy made me sick. I didn’t want one more high-sugar, high-fat, crinkly-wrappered treat to enter our home unless it had the words “peanut butter cup” on the wrapper.
Nevertheless, I packed up the kids and went to the local big box store yesterday afternoon. The kids still needed costumes for next year, and Ellie had a couple specific decorations she wanted. I could deal with a couple specific decorations; it’s the aimless wandering of aisles buying bulky impulse items I wanted to avoid. Plus, I felt a compulsive need to explore the half-off merchandise.
To my disappointment, most of the merchandise was gone by the time I arrived that afternoon. All the other vulturous stay-at-home parents must have picked it clean before I had a chance to. They were out of Ellie’s requested decoration, a lighted pumpkin formed of twigs. Instead she had to settle for a lighted squash made of twigs.
My main objective, though, was to find costumes for the kids for next year. Abbie’s current costume, a fairy princess, will fit next year, but after wearing it four times for a total of approximately six hours, it’s falling apart. The skirt is torn in three places, and while it still looks okay, large chunks are threatening to disembark from the costume and form green glittering icebergs on the sidewalk.
They had plenty of little girl costumes, but they were all kind of, well, slutty. They had a skin-tight cat suit with choke collar, a genie costume with exposed midriff, and a witch’s outfit with a miniskirt hemmed well above the knees. No daughter of mine is going trick-or-treating dressed like that; she’ll freeze with so little skin covered. After searching for the warmest costume, I found a glitter fairy. It’s pretty much exactly the same as this year’s costume except blue, so I’ll probably have to replace it next year too.
Next I needed costumes for the boys. We have a tiger costume left over from Abbie last year that should fit, so I just need one more. Most boy costumes are of the superhero variety, and most superheroes have the sense to cover up when it’s cold. Plus the sculpted muscles on the costumes leave adequate room for extra insulation if needed. Unfortunately, every costume I found fit boys ages 4 and up, and not even my incompetent laundry skills could shrink an outfit that much. Finally I found a Frankenstein costume that fit my criteria of a) fitting and b) covering most exposed skin.
With costumes in the cart, I wandered the aisles for other good deals. I picked up a few Halloween-themed shirts for the kids next year that seemed cheap until I realized that they’d only be able to wear them during the month of October. Otherwise, I bought nothing else. I proceeded to checkout with only the things I intended to buy, namely the costumes. Oh, and a bag of Peanut Butter Cups.
posted by Matt at
10:56 PM
1 Comments:
Do you want Rio's dragon costume next year? It is size 2T.
Patty
By
Anonymous, at 12:06 AM
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