Empty Nest Party-Pooper or Betty Rubble? You Decide!

Back again!  I am here to share with you my Halloween dilemma and to ask for your advise.

For an empty nest parent living in a neighborhood that only has a few children of trick-or-treat age, Halloween has become somewhat of a non-event.  It's hard to get too excited when the door bell rings three times in the whole evening. A few years ago, we only had one lonely child..........

The door bell rang and I opened the door and looked down at this 4 foot child.  His parents were standing proudly on the street watching their son.  His head was drooped and he was sort of flapping his arms up and down.  He was covered in a head-to-toe old brown sheet.  He flapped his arms a little harder for about 30 seconds then he lifted his head and gave me this desperate look.  I said, "Well now, what are we?"  "I'm a moth"................. he flaps his arms quietly, without a smile on his adorable face.  I gave him the whole bowl of candy.

Image via Wikipedia Just two neighborhoods away,  Halloween is hugely celebrated, second only to Christmas.  People decorate their homes, starting sometime in August.  They make haunted homes in their garages.    They have spooky music playing outside.  The adults drink adult-like witches brew and the kids are filled with little kids, teenagers, a truckloads of illegal immigrants.  Seriously, truckloads!  And the Moms and Dads and kids dress up for candy.  Perhaps a few loaves of bread should be given out.  Each house needs more than 10 pounds of candy to handle the volume of trick-or-treaters.  But no one cares about that, they are all having a blast! This also happens to be the neighborhood where my husband's brother and his family live..................

Image via Wikipedia

They have invited us to partake in this very festive night. Their family is taking on "The Flintstones" theme for the house and the costumes.  Here's my problem:


My husband is sort of the Halloween Scrooge.  He doesn't want to go.  If we must go, he doesn't want to dress up and he wants to stay for just a few moments.  I could go either way.  Part of me wants to put together Barney and Betty costumes and dress Wrigley like Deno, the dinosaur.  (I've been told that Betty was the hot one!)   But, the other part of me agrees with Bill....it's a Monday night, we don't need to spend the time or money in getting costumes together, the traffic getting over there will be mad....the list of negatives is a mile long.

So, what should I do?  I have about 3 hours to figure this out.  Are we getting to be old party-poopers?  Or are we just mature people?  You be the deciders......................................HELP!