The Great Pumpkin

I should preface this by noting that my boys eat very healthfully, often by choice. My wife, S, has done a remarkable job of ensuring that they always have lots of fruit and vegetables placed before them. They love pasta, and M even devours meat when he declares himself a "protein predator" (like a T-Rex, it seems). None of them eat much candy or sweets, and view those things as special treats.

So, at least thus far in their short lives, Halloween has not been about gathering 40 pounds of candy. They love dressing up, and love trick-or-treating in its various forms (at the Detroit Zoo's "Zoo Boo," at daycare, or with Nana and Grandpa), but do not yet care how big of stash they're able to obtain. I know this will change in time, but right now, we like it.

However, while the boys don't care about the amount of candy, they are very aware of the amount. If it suddenly went missing, we'd have problems. We've accepted this in the past when it was time to get the candy out of the house (often at the expense of my coworkers), but this year, S heard about an alternative solution.

One of her friends has started the tradition of the Great Pumpkin with their kids. The basic premise is that the Great Pumpkin takes their unwanted Halloween candy on Halloween night, and leaves behind small gifts. While the boys would miss candy that simply disappeared, this (we thought) was something they would go for.

So, while on our way to visit PopPop (one of the boys' great-grandfathers) and then trick-or-treating, I told them of the Great Pumpkin, and that he was a huge pumpkin ("like in The Runaway Pumpkin [a favorite book right now]" chimed in M), and that he ate Halloween candy. I said that he wanted to eat their extra Halloween candy, but he wouldn't just take it. Instead, if we left candy for him on the front porch, he'd leave presents. "Boys, what do you think?"

J immediately said, "We shouldn't do that." M replied, "He should get his own candy."

And so much for that.

Actually, they ultimately went for it, and it went off without a hitch, but that exchange darn near killed us. If this how they are thinking at (nearly) 4, what do we have in store in ten years?