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Hello Everyone,

When my kids were young, we didn't know anything about CD. (I wish we had. We
could have saved many years of unknown illness.) Still, I didn't like the
idea of my kids chowing down on tons of candy, and they always spent many days
being sick and out of control after such binges.

At the time my husband worked as a subcontracts negotiator, and he enjoyed
putting his "negotiating skills" to work during Halloween. The kids came home
from trick-or-treating with their bags of loot; everything was spread out
on the
kitchen table, and the bargaining began! They spent a fun half hour or so,
negotiating the "worth" of each piece of candy. In the end, I always let the
kids choose a few of their very favorite pieces of candy, and my husband
saw to
it that they wound up with some 10 dollars or so each. (Maybe these days that
candy would be worth much more!) The next day he took the bags of candy with
him to share at work, and I took the kids to the toy store (or clothing store,
as they approached preteen years) to spend their well earned money.

It was a successful tradition in our home for all their Halloween years, and
the kids, now in college, remember it fondly.

Maddy Mason
Hudson Valley, NY

* Visit the Celiac Web Page at www.enabling.org/ia/celiac/index.html *