Of Chick-or-Cheaking

Tonight was Shawnee's official Trick-or-Treat evening (along with various other locales in Oklahoma and possibly elsewhere, frankly I don't feel the need to do the research on this one).  While caught unaware during our first year as official home-owners/candy-dealers (the first time I'd ever experienced a city just moving the observance of Halloween to whatever it night chose), I found myself completely prepared this year.  Well, prepared in that, in the absence of investing in other children's tooth decay, we opted to side-step them altogether by taking our own munchkin on her costumed parade down the street.  Nothing like avoiding the issue while earning free candy in the process.

And did she sure love it.

Micaiah quickly caught on to the routine, knocking on the door with her itty-bitty fist (and following the knock with, "Come in!" - clearly playing the roles of both parties on this one), waiting patiently for the resident to appear, stepping to the side so the door could open wide enough for her to hold up her McDonald's Halloween Bucket and declare, "Chick-a-Cheak!"  After a quick "Tank-u" she waited for Mommy (loosely disguised as the Mama Bear to her Baby Bear) to gather canned goods (to later donate to the local food pantry) from the suckered door-opener, she would step away, grab Aunt Dee-ya's hand and move along to the next free-candy-stop while Daddy and his Mini-Me followed behind.

Now, there was some trial-and-error, such as learning after a visit to our first stop that we don't just walk in to any random house that opens the door to us.  And, sometimes there's a step on the porch and even though it's dark we should kind of watch out for that before face-planting.  But overall, it was good.  She was a fan.

In case you need a visual of our little family "decked-out" for Halloween (I use the term lightly because we definitely put out minimal effort this year):