Decisions, Decisions

Sometimes being a grown-up is hard. You have to make important decisions that influence everyone around you. You have to decide to get out of bed and go to work, decide what to have for lunch, decide how to best not inadvertently kill your dog. Some are harder than others. This time of year brings one of the harder adult decisions....Halloween Candy Selection.

Those who take this selection lightly obviously haven't taken a good hard look at what your Halloween Candy Selection (HCS) says about you and your station in society. For instance, the house with Bit o' Honeys and Wax Lips are clearly serial killers. The house with apples and homemade knick-knacks made by the home schoolers are, well, also clearly serial killers (in training).

The ramifications of the HCS always weigh heavily on me during Halloween season. This is why I spent a solid hour in the aisles of Target trying to find just the right candy to send the message that we are fun, free-wheelin', non-serial killin' folks. But there is a new development on the HCS scene: the variety pack. After looking at all my options in the variety pack section, I am now convinced that the variety pack is Mars' and Hershey's way of getting rid of the inventory that didn't move the other 364 days of the year. There are usually 3-4 solid items represented in the variety pack (M&Ms, Snickers, Skittles, etc.) and then they throw in some loser candy like Almond Joy. Seriously. Now someone reading this is going to say, "But Kaly, Almond Joys are awesome!" Congrats, you are a serial killer. I look forward to your episode of America's Most Wanted (sponsored by Almond Joy).

After much debate, I finally settled on two variety packs that seemed pretty solid with one less savory option, but nothing that sent a message that I couldn't live with. We have one bag containing the aforementioned M&Ms, skittles, snickers, and starburst (the latter being the ugly cousin along for the ride in this selection) and then another with Rolos, Milk Duds, Heath Bars, and something called the "Take 5". This one was a bit of a wild card as I had never sampled the Take 5 and didn't want to have to pick all of them out should they not fall in line with the other awesomeness. The Take 5 was sampled on the ride home and IT'S GREAT! No need to segregate and we have a strong showing at Casa de Erwin this year. Now I just have to make sure there are some Take 5s still available by Sunday...