What Bad Americans We Are

Halloween is synonymous with Trick or Treating, or at least in the US it is. Here Dan had colleagues ask if children really go from door to door and people hand out candy to them. Neither Dan nor I remember anyone coming to our door last year, though we both vaguely recall me buying candy, just in case. This year I had an almost 8 week old baby, and I had my first winter cold since last December this week, so Halloween was not on the top of my head. So I was mortified when at 7pm on Friday night the doorbell rang and 4 costumed children were at my gate with outstretched bags! I had two things going in my favor at that point, 1) I had just made some cookies earlier in the week, and 2) the Portuguese don't seem to have the paranoia that people in the US do about their children accepting homemade goods for Halloween. So I bagged them up while Tazzy kept our young visitors entertained. We had a total of 14 trick-or-treaters this year, so we learned our lesson, and if anyone is brave enough to come back next year I will be more prepared! Chalk it up to yet another American export catching on in the rest of the world.