What To Do With The Left Over Halloween Candy

The last "Trick or Treater" came to my front porch about 35 minutes ago.  We had a steady stream of characters of every size and age.  Some looked to be a few years past the "proper" age for trick or treating, but you aren only a kid once in your life so why not pretend to be younger than you are and get some free candy in the process?  I remember trick or treating until I was in the tenth grade.  I dressed as a little girl and pretended that I was "tall" for my age.  When the adults would answer their door I would hide behind a group of really young and short kids so that all that they could see was my pillow case.  (Yes, I said pillow case.  We did not have all the fancy trick or treat bags that children carry today.)

So with the completion of Halloween Trick or Treating comes the thoughts about what to do with all of the left over candy.  Now as you can tell we spared no expense when we purchased candy this year.  We bought the largest Jumbo bags of assorted chocolate candy bars that Sam's Club had to offer.  I started the evening by dumping 120 pieces of Reese's, Kit Kat, Almond Joy, Milky Ways and Snickers into my largest Tupperware mixing bowl.  Little did I know that my husband had done the exact same exercise about 15 minutes earlier, so we actually had 240 pieces of the most annoyingly wonderful smelling chocolate candy that you have ever smelled in your life wafting through our house.

With every ring of the doorbell our two little minature schnauzers would do their best to beat us to the door, and after several minutes of pushing them away and telling them to be quiet, we were finally able to open the door and greet our cheerful guest who all were programmed to say the same thing:  "Trick or Treat".  This was our signal to show that huge bowl of chocolate candy to all of those who came to visit. 

We started the evening with one strategy of  "Please take one" but as the evening wore on we changed it  to "Please help yourself to Two".  My husband even had one little boy grab three Reeese's peanut butter cups and when my husband said, "Sorry your only supposed to take two."  the little boy said No I took three because they are Reese's singe peanut butter cups, and my husband said "No I said take two, please put one back".   When he came inside and told me what happened he said, "you should have seen the look on that little boys face".  and his father was standing there.  But I was proud of my husband for sticking to his guns.  What did that little guy think he was doing?  We were being very generous giving them two pieces of candy and he was trying to be just a little bit greedy.  So, now with the evening coming to a close I looked in those two big bowls of candy, and had more than a second thought about what to do with all that candy.

Here are just a few of the thoughts that went through my mind.
1.  I could bring one of those bowls over to my chair and eat until I was sick, but just thinking about all that chocolate gave me a stomach ache.

2.  I could bag it up and give it to my grandchildren but then I thought better of it.  This would probably rot their teeth out and they are so young it would be years before their permanent teeth came in.

3.  I could bag the candy up and put it in the freezer for another day, another occasion, a party or some other special  event.

4.  I could take it into the office and let my co-workers hate me for tempting them with chocolate

5.  I could do nothing.  Just bag it up  and put it away for another day.

But then I remembered something that we did last year with our church.  We took inexpensive gifts to a womens shelter, and filled gift bags with candy!  YES!!  This is what I could do with all of this candy!  I could put it in gift bags to give to the women and children who live there.  I knew there was a good reason why my husband and I both openned up a huge bag of candy tonight, and I knew it had nothing to do with me eating any of it! 

So here's a question for you.  What are you planning to do with your left over Halloween candy?  Have you already given into the temptation of the chocolate aroma?  Even if you have already caved in and indulged in the  guilty pleasureof your choice, it's not too late.  
If you are trying to get healthy find a way to get the remaining candy out of sight and out of your house.  I promise you, there is someone out there who needs it more than you do!