He rocked his costume and was eating up all of the attention his therapists were giving him. Such a "ham"! I had the thought to come in costume myself that morning, but just didn't have it in me to get into full Princess Leia regalia at 7:30 in the morning. From Elijah's school, we hurried over to Christian's school to help him get into his costume (we were asked to pack it and not dress them in it) for the school Halloween Parade.
If you aren't an avid Star Wars follower (like me), then I'll let you know that Christian was dressed as Anakin Skywalker. He set the whole tone for our family costumes this year. School doesn't allow props or masks, so Christian had to leave the extras at home. After the parade, we were handed a special goody bag from 3 of Christian's classmates- Triplets, dressed to the nines (like always) in adorable coordinating Bear costumes. The goody bags were perfectly accessorized with a foam cut-out of either a bat, a witch hat or a pumpkin with a custom gift tag. The tag had a professional looking portrait of the triplets in their costumes and an appropriate Happy Halloween greeting. Yeah...remind me if I ever do that, that just because you CAN, doesn't mean you SHOULD. I left feeling like I had "phoned in" Halloween, without so much as a Dum-Dum lollipop to hand out.
I took the boys home, comforted by the thought that we had a whole 4 hours to pull our act together, get naps and get dressed in our Halloween costumes yet again, before a fun night of trick or treating with friends.
L.A. traffic will always conspire against you.
So, we were a half an hour late meeting our friends, and it was just me and my two little ones, as Charles wasn't off of work until later. We split up the neighborhoods we were trick or treating in and it's just never easy when there is a stroller and two excited boys in tow. It was more of a workout than I anticipated. However, Christian had a blast with his friends and Elijah was completely content snuggled into the stroller to tag along. We ended the night by stopping at a friend's house, who had opted to stay in to hand out candy and "drink wine". Charles met us there and surprised us all by coming in costume as a Dark force character- complete with life-like Light Saber. Despite a day of running around, the holiday felt fun and complete come night's end.
The memories that I make with my kids on holidays seem fuller, richer and more alive than before I had them. But, I wouldn't say it's always easy. Looking back, I wouldn't change much about the way we celebrated this year, but I am looking forward to the possibility that we could be stroller-free by this time next year. Fingers crossed, anyway.
