Happy Halloweeeeen!

In a perfect world, there would be no dishes, no laundry, no toilets (wait, scratch that... there wouldn't be any need for toilets, which also does away with diapers!), and we could wear masks. Isn't that what Halloween is really all about anyway? Being something you aren't for the day or the evening... or the whole weekend.

Holidays, like a bad flu, can last for days. With Halloween on a Sunday this year, we started our celebrations on Thursday with a party at Isaac's karate studio, and partied on through Friday (tantrums and costume hiccups), Saturday (costumes worked out, but drenching rain), and today, Sunday. Since Sunday is our Sabbath, we turned our celebrations to the more reverent activities of counting our blessings (candy, candy, candy, candy!!).

But, I was speaking of masks. Since it was turning out to be a rather wet evening outside on Saturday, our ward brought our Trunk or Treat indoors. Each candy-bearing adult was directed to take up a position in a room in the church (the chapel was off limits for obvious reasons, we do place limits on our pagan revelries). Our family arrived a little late, so all the rooms were taken. Somehow, I got stuck with the candy bowl, so I set up shop in the foyer directly outside the chapel. I was dressed in my standard Halloween attire: pointy purple witch hat, and a black witch robe (cinched at the waist with a wide belt for greatest fashionable effect, of course). My eyes were done up to the nines in smokey black shadow, with outrageous false neon purple eyelashes studded with rhinestones. Yes, dear reader, you read correctly, I was wearing rhinestones on my eyelashes. And my mouth was painted a lurid shade of red that I'd purchased under the unfortunately mistaken belief that it might actually be a color I'd wear in daylight. It later bled all over a caramel apple. Technically speaking, this was not a mask. But it might as well have been. Perhaps it was the hat, but I think it was more likely the garish eyelashes that gave me the sense that I was safe behind a facade. I haven't been so hammy for a long time. I was cackling, and shrieking at every child within earshot, and yes, doling out candy by the handfuls. The kids ate it up - not just the candy - but the winking eyelashes and the cackling and the whole bit.

And now that it is all over, I sigh wistfully, wondering if one day (or three) is really enough for the true witch in me to come out and shine through. Well, I suppose that will depend on how badly the pictures sting when I see them...

The kids, by the way, also enjoyed themselves as the Ranger's Apprentice (Isaac), Anakin Skywalker (Caleb), and an evil - his word - pirate (Eli). The pirate spent the evening fixated on taking his sword in and out of his sash belt. Tom was, as Caleb put it, an "old man" in a Christmas sweater. Next year I will have to try and coax the inner pagan out of the Professor. But, we got the pumpkins carved, my Halloween wreath assembled and hung, 4 out of the 5 of us were costumed, and we have way too much candy. All in all, the first holiday in this holiday season was a success, and I am relieved to retreat for a quick recovery before Thanksgiving!