Candy Galore!

The candy came out this weekend. Has it made it's way in to your house yet? I look at it as both a good thing (well, a fun thing) and a bad thing. It looks nice in the candy dishes - the trick is keeping it out of your mouth!
Each year, just about a week into the fall season, my daughter starts asking when we can get the Halloween decorations out. She gets so excited to see the spooky figurines and pumpkin candles and other fun things we've collected over the years. Tradition is very important to her and she counts on the decorating to offically welcome in the holiday. As much as I like the Halloween items we have, I'm always a tiny bit sorry to have them displayed. See, I remove all of the 'regular' decor (pictures, knick-knacks, 'pretties') that normally grace our end/coffee/sofa tables and entry way, to make room for the holiday 'stuff'. I love our everyday decor so stowing it all away in a cupboard or two makes me wince just a little. However...once the Halloween boxes come in from the garage and get unpacked and my daughter voices a memory about each piece, my 'regret' disappears and is replaced with her smiling face.
Now, much of our Halloween decor is made up of candle holders - all different kinds from store bought to homemade and there are enough of them to seriously dent a gigantic bag of tealights! So although we light'em up big time when the decorations first go up, we don't and can't continue to light them every night or we'd go broke by the end of the month just buying replacement candles! The other type of item that we have in multiples.....candy dishes. They look really cute...and really empty when they're not filled. Needeless to say, my daughter and I hit the bulk candy section during our weekend grocery trip. She picked most of the candies....chocolate eyeballs filled with pb and caramel, Laffy-Taffys, a few Hershey's minis and snack-sized Whoppers. And although I did grab a handful of individual Bit-o-Honey's for myself, I had to some of my favorite......candy corn! I think candy corn is one of those things that people either love or hate. Kinda of like Peeps....you know, the colored marshmallow treats that used to only be around at Easter but now come in a million different shapes and colors for every holiday? I am a Peeps-hater. I'm not big on marshmallow - ever - save for S'mores or when they're mixed into Rice Krispie Treats. The only time I've ever eaten a chocolate-covered marshmallow Santa was when I was very young. I'd taken a bite...hated it, then walked away, unintentionally letting it sit out for a few days. I remember going back to the dried out Santa and thinking, "Well, there's nothing else sweet to eat.....and it IS still candy..." so I took bite number two - which, by this time was very tough, chewy.....and quite good. Good or not - it's also really kind of gross. So....I don't eat marshmallow candy anymore but instead, go for the sweet, mellow, almost buttery yumminess of candy corn which I'm sure makes some people's faces squinch up just like mine does for Peeps. That's the fun thing about Halloween candy - there's something for everybody!
And as far as the 'other' candy goes...the candy for passing out to the tiny goblins on Halloween night - I can't even bring it in to the house till a few days before the 'big night' - I know my household too well. A day or two before Halloween, my daughter opens all the candy we buy for the trick-or-treaters, dumps them all into a huge bowl and tosses them as if they were a humongous 'candy salad'. It's bright and colorful and if you put your face right down into the bowl and inhale, the smell is quintessential Halloween! Little by little, pieces begin to diappear - and by Halloween night, I know I'll have to stop at the store on my way home from work to pick up an extra bag or two so as not to run out for the kids we actually bought the candy for! It's the same thing every year....and the reason I can admit it, well, something tells me our household isn't exactly unique.....am I right? ;-)
What's you're favorite Halloween candy?