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Fun font courtesy of the immensely talented Jenny from Allsorts

Halloween is such a funny celebration.  One that both children and adults can embrace with equal enthusiasm (as demonstrated by my very own family).  There is something about being able to dress up in costume that really appeals to adults.  I find it funny how many really sexy costumes there are.  Revealing Alice in Wonderland outfits with hemlines that are so short that most would be horrified to see them on any other night of the year.  How nice to have an excuse to get all tarted up and not suffer any lingering effects to one’s reputation or image.

It’s only 9:15am and I’ve already had two mini KitKat bars.  But I’ve also had three diet Cokes which I believe cancels them out.

Trick or Treating has seemed to lose favor these past few years.  At least in the neighborhood where I grew up.  When I was a child the streets would be filled with throngs of dressed up kids, criss-crossing the streets.  Now we consider ourselves lucky if we get even ten trick or treaters.  We are even happy to see the surly teenagers that must not get out much the rest of the year since I never recognize any of them.  Even though most of them don’t even wear costumes.

When we went Trick or Treating when I was younger the adults accompanying us would often carry a highball glass and get a treat themselves at certain houses.  See?  Fun for all ages.

Have a safe evening everyone.  Tomorrow we can officially start talking about Christmas.

It was our 20th Annual Halloween Soiree last night.  The rules are simple – You must come in costume.  You cannot repeat yourself for five years (meaning you can’t trot out the same costume year after year).  You must eat food you wouldn’t normally eat because they are just so totally horrible for you (like Jalapeno Poppers, Buffalo wings and chicken taquitos).  Many bottles of wine and beer must be consumed. 

I did my part.

There is always a costume competition.  The categories this year were Scariest, Funniest, Best Couple/Group, Most Unrecognizable, Most Effort and a Grand Prize to the person that wins most votes overall.  The competition is fierce and the costumes get more and more elaborate. 

Most Effort went to my sister Kate who was a wedding cake.  More specifically she was my nieces’ wedding cake.  I give you the evidence:

We had glamorous costumes, The Devil Wears Prada (which took me a good 45 minutes to figure out – I kept telling my niece to put her purse down.  Doh!), a pretty pirate, a sexy little umpire.  I was a white witch which turned out more glamorous than the scary I was going for.  More on that topic in a bit. 

There were couple’s costumes; Raggedy Ann and Andy, Tia and Jack from Pirate’s of the Caribbean (Best Couple/Group winner), a Mexicali Pride gang and the border patrol group costume effort (won most overall votes).

Funniest went to my nephew who was dressed as the King of Halloween.  He tends to win each year in the Grand Prize category because his costumes are so elaborate and so realistic.  So last year when I sent the invites out I challenged everyone to knock him off his throne – so this year he came on his throne). 

Most unrecognizable went to another nephew dressed as the border patrol.  A costume he threw together in the 11th hour to go with his sisters and dad’s group theme.

I can’t remember who won scariest.  Hmmm.  Refer to paragraph above regarding the eating and drinking requirement.

We had a fallen angel, a race car driver, Zorro, a wizard or two, African royalty, a Ace of Spades, a goth (oh wait!  I think my BIL won scariest for his goth costume).  One of the funnier costumes was my cousin who dressed up as a bag of spinach with e-coli.  It was the running joke of the night with a certain Ace of Spades stealing his e-coli and infecting other party goers with it.

We had an evil looking clown (is that self explanatory?  are all clowns evil looking?), a Minnie Mouse, someone dressed in an absolutely gorgeous 1930’s kimono, a regular witch and like I said, me dressed as a white witch.

I have a white peignoir set I bought about 12 years ago and I’ve managed to use it as a costume four times now.  I get past the no repeating yourself rule because each time I’m a different character.  I’ve been an angel, The Ice Queen, bride of Frankenstein and now this year – a white witch.  I’m running out of white ideas though. 

Now it’s time to get geared up for Christmas. 

!!

My sisters and I share a common, fond memory from our childhood.  We all loved, almost more than anything, to sit on our parent’s bed and look at my Mother’s charm bracelet.  Each charm was so intricate and tiny. 

When my parents were courting my Father bought my Mother a new silver charm each week.  Can you think of anything more romantic?  I can’t.  There is a little toaster were the toast actually goes up and down.  A little ladder that opens and closes.  A teeny book of matches that opens to reveal the matches within.  My sisters and I could spend hours laying on their bed looking at each charm.

Each of us covets that charm bracelet.  It sits in my Mother’s jewelry drawer, like it always did.  And we still pull it out and look at it now and then.  We don’t talk about it but at some point we are going to have to go through my Mother’s things and decide what to do with them.  There could be a big battle over that bracelet.  For now it is in my Father’s safe keeping.

When I was nine and living in Ankara, Turkey my Mother started a charm bracelet for me.  A good number of the charms are Turkish; the coffee urn with it’s evil eye, the whirling dervish.  Other charms have been collected on trips as souvenirs; a teeny cuckoo clock from the Black Forest, a thimble from the Fingerhut (thimble) Museum in Creglingen (which I have been to twice – once in 1970 and once in 1996).  I have tiny grand piano and a castle from Ireland.  There is a small medal of Pope Paul VI that was given to me in church and I told everyone the Pope himself had given it to me (the priest that handed it to me had a very official looking hat on, it was an honest mistake).

There are charms from American travels as well.  A bicycle from a trip to Cambria, CA (which has nothing to do with bicycles but the wheels moved and I had to have it).  A charm from Mount Rushmore and a little Tinkerbell from Disneyland. 

I’m out of room but not out of travels.  I’m going to have either start a new bracelet or start doubling up on the links.  I did start a gold charm bracelet but the charms are all hearts.  Plenty of room still left on that bracelet.  My plan is to buy heart charms as rewards for accomplishments.

The only non-heart charm on the bracelet is a little guardian angel my two sons gave me. 

My own sons liked looking at my charm bracelet but I don’t think they were as fascinated with it as I was my Mother’s.  Maybe it’s a girl thing.  Perhaps there will be granddaughters some day, that will sit on my bed and spend hours going over each charm and listening to the stories of where they came from.