BOO!!!!!

Ah YESSS!!! Here comes one of my favorite holidays: Halloween. It’s such a great holiday, dedicated to fun, the acquisition of industrial quantities of candy (even if you are too old to trick or treat, you can stand there with an enormous bowl of it, to hand it out, and eat half of it yourself….just checking it out!!!). Kids get to wear silly costumes, so do adults, the whole thing has always seemed like so much fun to me. And as I’ve told you, we’ve had some memorable costumes in the family. One of my favorites was my oldest daughter’s orange dyed face (she was a pumpkin that year), which wouldn’t wash off for 2 weeks (and she had to explain at work, since she was in her 20’s by then). My 6 year old who wanted to be a hooker, after the film “Pretty Woman” came out. And my all-time favorite for me is still my Whoopee Cushion costume, which I love, and I was Cruella de Ville one year, with a fake Dalmatian coat with Dalmatian puppies on it. Now I just go as a witch every year (YES! that IS a costume!!). We had such a fantastic time with the kids every year on Halloween, we drove around with all 9 of them and their friends in our van, to trick or treat at friends’ homes spread all over the neighborhood, each one carrying a plastic pumpkin to fill with loot, and wearing light up jewelry. And their father and I longingly glancing into their pumpkins wondering if they’d give us a teeny-weeny piece of candy. We set up a haunted house every year with the kids in our guest room. And we all had dinner together before we’d go out, and each of the children had friends there. We were a total mob going out for trick or treat. The kids would look forward to it all year, and I think we as parents enjoyed it just as much. Even my adult kids now still dress up. One in particular (a daughter) puts real effort into it and was a matador one year, a famous artist last year, and someone from a TV show. They put a lot of thought into it. New Year’s Eve can be the toughest night of the year and I rarely have a good time that night (too melancholy), and Valentine’s Day can be a real heart breaker. But EVERYONE has fun on Halloween!!!  Some of my older kids used to go to a shaving cream fight on Halloween every year, and was that a mess!! But they had a ball!!!

I give a Halloween dinner in Paris every year, for about a dozen friends, and decorate the table with sparkly spiders, flashing rings, vampire teeth, and other treasures I bring from the States to commemorate the day. We all act like kids and have a great time. One of my daughters used to make an inventory of her candy every year, meticulously, and then hide it (from her siblings) and treat it as her candy stash for months. Even our dogs have Halloween costumes, my Chihuahua, and my son and his girlfriend’s Chihuahua and Boston Bull Terrier will all be geisha girls this year, in little red satin kimonos. We’ve had Superman dog costumes, and some other notable ones. No one is exempt in our family.

I miss taking the kids trick or treating. It was always so much fun. I hope you get some good trick or treating or Halloween fun in this year……and if not, just hold that bowl at the front door, and make sure you get some of the Reese’s peanut butter cups (my favorite), and the little Snickers Bars, and Milky Ways with dark chocolate!!! Treat is the key word here!!!!!

Happy Halloween, love,  Danielle