For the first time in 20 years, I'm alone on Halloween. Rick's on shift, the Bigs have taken the Smalls out trick-or-treating and also took the lead in getting them dressed. The lone spawn left home is holed up in her room doing physics and hating life. The loaded candy bowl is out front with the porch light on. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is in the background, Kenneth Branagh chewing the scenery in lace cuffs. The dishwasher is running and one of the idiot dogs occasionally barks at a ghost but it is otherwise very, very quiet.
It's weird.
Halloween has always been my favorite. It's a chaotic, irreverent mess of treats and spooky movies with baller soundtracks and indulging in dressing up. I love throwing together costumes--over the years I've acquired or made enough pieces to make a pretty fantastic dress-up box. It's come in pretty handy. For example, this year Aeryn could not choose a costume for love nor money nor threats; then literally about noon today, she decided to be a flapper and made her sister join her in the roaring 20s. A couple minutes of digging through my magic tubs and a quick swipe of makeup and I had two ladies ready to rouge up their knees and Charleston the night away.
We've had some great costumes over the years if I do say so myself. Steampunk Joker and Harley Quinn, Avatar the Last Airbender, the Moon and her Fairies, Superman, Captain Hammer, Firefly, an Old West themed family complete with cow and saloon owner. More recently the girls have taken more and more control over their costumes, resulting in some pretty impressive results--Captain Amelia from Treasure Planet, Orpheus, Chadifer the College Dude Bro, a Chicken, various witches, and a bombshell version of Rarity (My Little Pony). There were some missed opportunities, for sure--I will regret not doing Miss Hannigan and her orphans when the girls were still small enough that the costume fit (and they had easily overruled opinions). Monty Python and the Holy Grail was another missed opportunity. For some reason, teen girls aren't exactly jumping at the chance to be a "shrubbery" or "Knight who says Ni" (though Claudia was quite delighted at the thought of being the killer bunny).
I'm not sure how I feel about this change, one more in a great wave of changes. I take that back. It actually makes me a little sad. It's fun to dress up, but it's more fun to help a kid make their vision come to life. Candy's always nice (especially half-price day-after-Halloween candy), but there's a certain thrill to the post-holiday trading market that springs up in the living room. Making fudge eyeballs and decorating cookies badly just isn't the same solo. The magic fades. Luckily I still have some time with my girls at home; and after that, I'm statistically likely to have at least a couple grandkids; the magic hasn’t dulled yet, and while it will alter it's not likely to fade entirely.
In the meantime, I'll enjoy a couple quiet minutes out of a still chaotic, bustling, beautiful part of life. I'll sip my drink. I'll write maudlin nonsense in my blog. And when those kids come home and the sugar swap meet opens in my living room, you can bet I'll be taking my cut of the candy. Times are a-changing, but they ain't gone yet.
Happy Halloween. Make the most of it.
