The Halloween Chronicles

Halloween always feels like it’s a million days long. Every year, by the time the actual 31st arrives, I am so sick of it. I am a Halloween Scrooge through and through. I don’t think I would be so cranky about it if Halloween was just a day… ya know… like it was meant to be… but it’s a whole season. And on top of all the Halloween costuming, my kids have been dressing up non-stop for two months. Every football game at the high school had a dress up theme, plus we had Homecoming week with five dress-up days and Make-a-Wish week with five dress up days and red ribbon week with five dress up days. 

White Out

Adam Sandler Day

On Wednesdays we wear pink

It’s out of control!!!

Then to top it off, we had Sadie’s two days after Halloween which, for some reason, is now a costume party instead of a simple matching t-shirt experience like it was when I was in school. When Nicky asked me at 11:00 pm on Halloween to find him a shirt so he could dress as Phineas on Saturday, I told him he was on his own. 

Luckily, Daisy really did just want matching t-shirts for her and Leo. 

I had to enlist a family member to make them, though, because Amazon couldn’t get them to us in time (both my kids that went to Sadie’s were running last minute operations).

Glad it’s over.

But let’s not forget that we’ve also been doing costuming for The Music Man. I’ve had to buy character shoes, dress pants, compression underclothing, and more. I also made a few hats for the pick-a-little ladies (Daisy included) and mended a bunch of bloomers and petticoats. 

One more month of costumes. Then I think we can rest from them in December. Do not invite me to your ugly Christmas sweater party. I’m sorry, I can’t make it. 

Anyway, earlier today I was telling my friend how weary I am from the negative people in my life. There are a few personalities in my inner circle who are incredibly gloom-ridden, and I’ve realized how exhausting it can be to be immersed in pessimism. Yet, here I am being negative, myself. The good news is that Halloween (the actual day) wasn’t horrible. It was fine. But when I woke up in November 1st, and Halloween was over, I was a new woman! 

On Halloween we went to the elementary school parade in the morning. At 6:00 we started trick or treating. Zoe went out with a friend for the first time and had the time of her life. Nicky went out with friends going from party to party all night. Daisy stuck with us and Eva around the neighborhood. It was pretty low-key. 

Eva

Zoe and her fried

Zoe

Zoe and Eva with friends

Daisy

Our kids always get spoiled by our neighbors. The number of full size candy bars they come home with shall not be mentioned. They also got treated to Pokémon cards and multiple chances for hot chocolate and scones. Now we just have to endure the endless candy wrappers all over the house and the stray Halloween decorations that keep turning up. 

Currently (November 2024 Edition)

Reading:

Celebrating: Zoe’s 12th birthday. Her actual birthday is today, November 2 (who knows what day it will be by the time I finish this post and publish it). We are having family over to celebrate tomorrow, and then Zoe gets to pick what’s for dinner on Monday. 

Wearing: black pants and a Stars Hollow t-shirt.

Eating: a chocolate dome from Kneaders.

Suffering from: second-hand teenager drama. 

Laughing about: this… which I’ll have to explain later…

Annoyed by: testimony meeting in our ward. It tends to be a series of monologues, prepared speeches, health histories, and rants each month. Today (it’s Sunday now) a guy came prepared with a prop and a handful of quotes on cards. 

Buying: ice. About six weeks ago our ice maker went caput (and flooded our basement), and I now have to buy a bag of ice every week.

Watching: 

Dreading: election drama and cold and flu season. 

Enjoying: long pants and not having to shave my legs if I don’t wanna.

Looking forward to: putting up my Christmas decorations. But I always wait til at least the week of Thanksgiving. I usually put things up before my kids are out of school for Thanksgiving so I don’t have “helpers.” But I let them do the basement tree so they can have the sense of satisfaction and involvement.

Worried about: my kids. Always. Right now I’m worried about their relationships with their peers. Particularly Daisy and Zoe. 

Listening to:

Craving: nothing because I just ate dinner and followed it up with an Andes mint. 

Needing: to clean up the birthday decorations now that it’s Tuesday. 

Drinking: water. I’m two days soda sober. 

Cooking: nothing. We’ve been out to dinner two nights in a row. Leave me alone. We had coupons. 

Singing: “Marrrrrrrrrrian. Madame Librarrrrrrian.”

Sneak peek

Procrastinating: paying $15 to the community college for Nicky’s concurrent enrollment. 

Loving: my neighbor boy’s Halloween costume.

I took him trick or treating for a while with us, and I couldn’t stop laughing at him running around like that. He definitely channeled his inner Ralphie.

Playing:

Technically we haven’t played yet, but I just bought it.

Grateful for: all of my working body parts. 

White Bird

One of my fallback activities when my kids are out of school is to go see a movie. Yes, the expense is atrocious, but it's something to do when I'm desperate. We end up going to a lot of movies. On Monday,* I looked at what was playing and figured we'd end up seeing Wild Robot (though I really didn't want to. I am so sick of animated movies and have been for years and years. I typically sleep through them or play Wingspan on my phone if I'm able to get a seat where that's not a disruption to other people). 

When I was looking at showtimes, I saw that White Bird was playing. My kids love Wonder, so I wondered (no pun intended) how they would like White Bird (if you're not familiar with White Bird, it is a companion story to Wonder with a tie in to the character Julian, who was expelled from school for making fun of Auggie. White Bird is the story of Julian's grandmother who grew up as a Jew in WWII. Julian learns his grandma's story of hiding from the Nazis as a teenager and about his namesake, Julien). I decided to try seeing White Bird even though I wasn't sure how my little girls would handle it (they are still cartoon-only kids, though I've been trying to branch out for years). 

Going into it, I knew I needed to fill them in on some things. I told them about how the story connected to Wonder. But then I also had to give them their introductory lesson in WWII. Oh, how tragic it is to have to teach kids about the worst of humanity. 

That morning, I took Zoe and Eva to the skate park and the craft store. While we were driving around, I told them about the movie we were going to go see. I talked to them, in the briefest way, about Hitler and some of the details of how he treated people. Then mid-day, we hit the movie theatre. 

I was worried because the movie was two hours long, and I didn't think those two would endure it well. To my surprise, Zoe and Eva both watched and paid attention to the entire movie. They were very reactive to the story. They gasped, they asked questions, they covered their eyes, and they even cried. I was stunned by their attentiveness. Fortunately we were the only people in the theatre so I didn’t have to worry about shushing them - I was able to answer their questions and let them give commentary. 

They liked the movie and talked about it off and on for the rest of the day. It felt so good to have that experience and reminded me of how much I like that phase where my kids and I start to connect more in interests. That’s something I have really enjoyed about having older kids.  

*Monday, October 14. Sheesh, I’ve been writing this post for a long time. In the weeks since we saw White Bird, Eva has become fascinated with Edward Scissorhands. I’m excited about anything that’s not animated!