My Grinchy Side

I've always had a desire to dress up in costume and play a character. There's something intriguing to me about covering up my identity and acting like a fool.

The closest I've come is on Halloween, but my identity has always been known, and everyone else is dressed up acting like a fool, too, so it's not really the same.

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine was telling me about her family Christmas party. She usually does a fun theme, and this year she was doing "Breakfast with the Grinch." She mentioned that she wished The Grinch could come to visit. I happened to know where she could rent a Grinch costume, so I gave her the info, and, long story short, I ended up being The Grinch!

I wouldn't consider myself an "outgoing" person. For the most part, I think I'm pretty reserved and self-conscious. I have to be really comfortable before I get interesting. 

I wasn't sure how I'd do walking into a house of 50+ people in a costume and parading around in front of all of them in character. I considered a few ways to back out, but then I decided, I want to do this! I can be The Grinch! 

I got the costume the night before the party, and I figured I should give it a test run. My kids were at my mom's house, and I needed to go pick them up, so I called my mom and told her to have the kids come to the window. Scotty dropped me off at the corner in the costume, and I tip-toed around my mom's yard for a minute, then stole a Christmas decoration and ran up the street where Scotty was parked in the van. I got in, threw the costume off, and we approached my mom's house to pick up the kids as if nothing had happened. 

The kids were excited to tell me that they'd just seen The Grinch, and that he'd stolen something out of Grandma's yard! 

"Did you see him? Did you see him?"

No, we did not see him, but we found Grandma's Christmas decoration in the road and brought it back.

Nicky kept watching out the window and going outside to look up the road for The Grinch. Zoe kept saying, "Grinch scare me! Grinch scare me!"

When we loaded everyone in the van with The Grinch costume, the gig was up. 

Ha ha ha! It was Mom!

That evening, I staged a Grinch sighting for some of our neighbors. I filled the Grinch's Christmas sack with garbage and handed all the kids egg cartons, soup cans, and empty toilet paper rolls. It was a blast!

Saturday morning was my big moment. I planned to do a "silent" Grinch, which worked out well because no one would have been able to hear my muffled voice through the mask. I took my cues from Mickey Mouse at Disneyland - the best of the best - who is silent. 

I ended up having so much fun. Everyone reacted a little different to The Grinch. The adults were mostly uninterested, as adults tend to be. There were little kids who were terrified of me, of course, but then there were a few kids who adored me. Adored!!!

One little boy kept coming to see me over and over. He had his own Grinch mask, and he even brought a little stuffed dog with a reindeer hat on. It wasn't the Max, but it was his own version of Max, which made it even better. 

 

My biggest fan was a little girl who followed me around and gave me hugs. She was the first to greet me when I came through the door, and she was the last to see me off.  She was such a sweetheart.

I spent most of the time posing for pictures with families and interacting with the children. Then I passed out Grinch pills to everyone.

By the time I left, I was drenched in sweat and really excited to take the mask off and breathe real air, but I had so much fun. I can now check this off my bucket list!