Connors in Doha: Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from the Doha Dinosaurs and cave parents.

Jaydon has gotten to just the right age where he can really get into some of the silly traditions we have. Halloween is a holiday that we expats have always gotten into since it’s so easy for everyone to join in on the fun. Once we got Jaydon in his costume (Tylor was still napping) we headed out trick-or-treating.

We explained to him that we would go to people’s houses; he would say trick-or-treat and then get candy. Now Jaydon does not get very much candy and most of it is chocolate which for some reason he’s decided he doesn’t like (all well, more for me) so he didn’t really appreciate the candy part of the night. We got to the first house and Jaydon did his part, got the candy then promptly ran in to the house.

Steve fetched him back out, we went to the next house and he did the same thing. At the 3^rd house we clarified the instructions that you say trick-or-treat, get candy, then don’t go in to the house but go to the next one – that’s when Jaydon asked, in a very concerned manner, when he would get to go in to people’s houses to go play.

It was amazing how many kiddos where out and about and compounds are made for trick-or-treating. We were also impressed how many people got into the fun. The streets were full of kids of all ages and most houses, no matter what nationality, made an effort to give out some kind of treat.

The next day I was chatting with some of our European friends mentioning how well I thought the previous night had gone and they responded that they couldn’t believe how many teenagers were out and about. They felt it was very rude for them to be trick-or-treating, this confused me since in the US teenagers have as much fun with it as anyone. I delved into this a bit more and they explained that they had assumed that like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny the Halloween trick-or-treating would just be for the younger kids. I helped them understand that this isn’t the case so next year I think they will be better prepared. Once Tylor woke up I went and collected him.

Samina had stayed home to wait for Tylor and so it made sense to have her hand out the treats. I gave her a witch’s hat and some necklaces and she really got into the fun of giving out the treats.

I had purchased about 10 lbs of candy and we gave out everything. That night we let Jaydon have 2 pieces of actual candy (the raisins, popcorn, and other baked goodies we got that night didn’t really count). Then when he went to bed I cleaned up the house of any trace of candy or Halloween, hid away his bucket full of treats, and the next morning he didn’t say a word about more candy.