Feathering an Empty Nest: Don't even say it...

I know it's kind of early to decorate.

But I like the Fall season and I love Halloween.

Do I love it as much as Christmas?

Yes I do.

Is that strange?

I don't care.

{MollDoll's 1st Halloween, 1990}

I apologize for my fondness of this pagan holiday.

I apologize for unveiling the pumpkins before October.

I apologize for it all.

Sorry. Sorry. Sorry

Now let's move on...

My mother always celebrated Halloween.
October 31st was my late brother's birthday, and being allowed to eat birthday cake as well as my Halloween candy?!

Unbelievable.

I attended Catholic school and November 1st (All Saints Day) was a holiday.

No school the next day meant I could wake up with a belly full of Milky Ways and still work my way through the Smarties!

Life was good.
So good.

When LawyerBoy was born many years later on November 1st,

I was delirious with happiness and I couldn't believe my luck.

I would send him to Catholic school and therefore he'd be able to spend the day after Halloween just as I did...

Sorting out his candy and rationing it for the coming weeks.

{Lawyer Boy, 1982}

OK, so he didn't quite do that.

He's a boy.

He usually ate it all at once and threw up on his bed.

Did I say life was good?!
It was!

As the years went on my love of all things Halloween did not diminish.

Not a bit.

I threw myself into sewing elaborate costumes for my children.

We usually won the school costume contests.

Yes, I made this...

{1988}

And Dopey, and the 50's girls...

{1992}

The other Mothers hated me.

I did not care.

And then it happened.

The kids had the audacity to grow up.

And it wasn't pretty.

{1997}
{TeacherGirl wore this face for three years straight...and not just on Halloween}

Their idea of a costume was a flannel shirt, a mask of the current president, or clothes turned inside out.

{1991}

Shaving cream fights, and toilet paper hanging from trees became the new Halloween in our neighborhood.

{2000}

I cried quite a bit.

My pumpkins were stolen and smashed in the street.

Parents kept their little ones close to home, and instead of running out of candy I was left with pounds of it...and I ate it all...alone.

Halloween became something totally different, and I was heartbroken.

But time does heal...

It took quite a few years.

But finally, Halloween has come full circle.

My children are adults.

Adult Halloween parties call for tasteful adult costumes...

{Maggie and Bryan, 2006}

{LawyerBoy isn't going to be very happy about this}
{2004}

The teenagers of my neighborhood have become adults and moved on. New families with little devils and tiny princesses have moved in.

{Maggie, 1989}

I decorate my house early and watch from the window as children walk by. I pass out handfuls of properly wrapped candy (no toothbrushes here) and I comment on everyone's costume.

I'm dreaming of grandchildren too. I can start sewing again!!