Halloween Fan? Nah.

GREY*isms*

• G: “Mom, what is that?”
• Me: “It’s a cap gun”
• G: “You can shoot cats with it?”

October is my favorite month.  The mornings are starting to get cold (~45F) but the afternoons are sunny and fall-warm (~60F).  It’s primetime pumpkin patch weather but we haven’t scheduled it yet.  Here’s to hoping the sun/no-rain holds off for one more weekend.

If you know me well, you know I’m not a huge fan of Halloween so it begs the question, why would October be my favorite?  On the one hand, it’s 31 days of spiders, bats, witches and zombies; black and orange (just a hot water rinse-cycle away from Chicago Bears colors), creepy lawn decorations and Styrofoam headstones.  On the other, it’s fall colors, cinnamon candles, sweaters and puffy-vests, Harvest-themed decorations, family time* and football (Ok, baseball too, when the Brewers are in the post-season- alas, not the World Series).

Now I feel I need to clarify because most of my friends, family and readers are massive fans of this “holiday”.  I do not dislike Halloween.  I do not dislike kids in costumes, trick or treating, jack-o-lanterns and scarecrows.  I do dislike ME in costume.  I do not enjoy handing out candy to 17+ year old trick or treaters without costumes holding a pillow case (I prefer not to provoke this set by turning them away so I smile and let them choose what they want- my fear of “crazy” is a blog post for another day).  I recently listened to Rob Lowe’s audio book** Stories I Only Tell My Friends and he recounted a trick or treating night in his neighborhood when Martin Sheen dressed up in camo, painted his face and hid in the bushes. Even Martin Sheen wouldn’t alleviate my lack of appreciation for unexpected scares jumping out of the trees.  ‘Party Pooper’, ‘Boring’, ‘Annoying’- call me what you want.  I LOVE my kids’ excitement over costumes and candy, pumpkin carving and toasting seeds, hot apple cider and a late bedtime.  I embrace Halloween on behalf of my kids and will stimulate the economy with purchases on their behalf (that is, once they’re old enough to choose their own costumes- until then, hand-me-downs it is).

Greyson has chosen the Bumblebee Transformer.  Graham has not chosen, but will be, a soft and cuddly bumblebee.  I will post more pictures and you will ooh and aah.  Just don’t scream from behind the bushes.

3 Reasons to love October

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*As opposed to family time in the summer which typically includes more people, more trips and more organization. Aside from a weekend business trip for Mike, we are home together until November 6th when I depart for business in Europe and Mike goes to Costa Rica shortly after I get back.

**I highly recommend “listening” to his autobiography. He could read the dictionary and make it pleasurable