boo!...

As a kid, I wasn't allowed to celebrate Halloween.

My mother was a bible thumpin', pew jumpin', devil stompin' type...so it just wasn't in the cards for me and my siblings. Oh sure, some of the older kids got to play dress up on a crisp October night long before Mom got spirit filled, but after I was born we were all banned from the holiday.

Fortunately, my kids and I go trick or treating.

I won't say it's a revolt from my childhood or anything that deep. I just don't buy into evangelical notions of the world anymore and gladly get into it now. I am proud to show, yet a little embarrassed to admit, that I carved my first jack-o-lantern this afternoon.

And it looked pretty damn good.

Hey, somebody pass the tootsie rolls!