Yesterday, I did something I normally never do: I ate some Halloween candy.

I say some, because after years of only eating really good chocolate, the "fun size" Snickers and Almond Joys don't taste that great. I had a couple, made a face, and then began carving pumpkins. By the time the kids showed up, I was more than happy to hand out huge handfuls of candy to them.

Overall, we went through five bags of candy last night. I'm always worried we won't get many kids so I tend to give out huge chunks of candy early on. By the time everyone arrives, I'm so used to giving out a ton of candy, I continue to give out a ton of candy.

I like to think I'm the kind of person who I would've wanted to trick-or-treat at when I was younger: someone who's generous with the sweets, offers something that at the time I loved, and never says anything like, "aren't you too old to be doing this?" As someone who dressed up and went door-to-door well into their twenties, I say, "keep going kids."

Over the evening, I also sent out three out of four e-books. So far, people have wanted to celebrate the chocolate-iest night of the year with Cooking with Ergot, Shadow Hunt, and After Dark. Good books, if I do say so myself ;)

With Halloween behind me, I've been working on the less anticipated part of the night: cleaning up. The pumpkins have been turned into cooked mush and the decorations were brought in (for some reason the neighbors don't think a head on a stick is a good Christmas decoration, even when I put a Christmas hat on him).

And now, when everything is put away... I remember it's November first. Nano has begun.