Trick-or-Treating: Strike One

Ohhhh, when I think of this night, even now, a few months later, I get sooooo mad.

Kay. So our ward has a trunk-or-treat every year for Halloween. It's usually a few days before Halloween proper. And we really get into it. Everyone decorates their trunks, and everyone (even the adults standing at their trunks) dresses up. And this is the coolest part - people bring candy for the kids, of course, but then they ALSO bring hors d'eouvres for the adults!!! Sooo cool. Brother and Sister S. dressed as members of the band, Kiss, last year, and served these meatballs that were to die for. Our Bishop dressed as a female witch and made homemade scones on his camp stove. I mean, everyone goes all OUT. So cool. Oh, how I love my ward.

So, two Sundays before the big trunk-or-treat, one of our counselors in the bishopric got up and announced that it would be such-and-such night at 7:30 p.m. Take note of that time, my friends. It will come up later. I remember thinking, "Wow, it will already be dark by then. Weird. But whatever. We'll BE there!"

And then I missed the announcements the following Sunday because Gage and Micah were being special and we were in the foyer and the little intercom speaker things don't work in the foyer.

So the night of the big trunk-or-treat came. We got everyone all ready. Dylan was a vampire this year, and he had all this makeup he had to put on and had fake blood to apply and everything. It was a big deal.

And I decided that I wanted to make a quadruple batch of homemade chicken taquitos, so that there would be enough for everyone. I cooked all afternoon. Hundreds of taquitos. So we get everyone ready and get our taquitos into our little warmer/carrier thing, and we start walking to the church parking lot.

And then I see Brother M., who dresses as Uncle Sam every year, walking home on his huge stilts. And I think, "Why is he leaving? It's just getting started!"

And then it hit me. The counselor had announced the wrong time. They had announced the right time the following week. I wasn't there to listen to the announcements, and Ben hadn't heard it, probably because he was helping Dylan or Sadie with some urgent matter, like retrieving fruit snacks from the church bag or something like that.

We had missed it. Everyone was going home.

I felt sick to my stomach. I was so ANGRY. Angry at myself. Angry at the counselor (which was bad of me, I know). Just SO MAD. I had gone to so much work making those taquitos! And the kids had been so excited!!! And all that makeup Dylan put on! For nothing!

I was so angry that I went straight down to my room and lay in bed, in the dark, in the fetal position for an hour. And I cried. I know. Dumb. But I was just so upset.

(Micah went as a disgruntled three-year-old. Haha! He refused to wear his costume.)

Luckily, there are many opportunities for kids to trick-or-treat, and my kids took the devastating news quite well. I should learn from their example. :)