How I spent my Halloween (Maggie)

I probably didn't spend my Halloween the way you'd expect a famous vampire novelist would. There were no costumes, no grown-up parties, no big events. Not the way you'd expect a woking Witch to spend it either--I missed the local Witchy Samhain gatherings so far this year, though there are a couple of more coming up that I might make. (The actual date of Samhain, the old Celtic Harvest festival from which our modern Halloween is derived falls on November 7th this year. If you're interested, it's the exact halfway point between the Fall Equinox and the Winter Solstice.)

Anyway, life came along. My youngest needed me, needed to come home for a bit, and so everything else fell to the back burner.

She's here with me now, and starting to relax a little. The second youngest has been here too, right by our side most of this week, even while juggling her full time job and full time studies. The other three have been only a phone call or short drive away. I love to see the way my daughters pull together when any one of them falters even a little bit.

So back to Halloween. Early in the afternoon, Stacie, Lisa and I headed over to the elementary school to watch the annual Halloween parade. And with all that's been happening this week on my mind, I forgot my camera. I could kick myself! I always bring my camera! Stacie got pics with her cell phone, we hope, so I should have some later on. But still, as much as I love taking pictures I was angry with myself. And yet we were there, and that was the main thing. We watched Katie's kids, Tanner (7) and Ella (9) as they lined up on the playground in their costumes. Costumes were great this year. Ella was Lilly Munster, and Tanner was a Storm Trooper--or I thought he was anyway. Stacie said he was actually a Clone Trooper, which was a slightly different type. (Both from Star Wars, but the first from Episodes 3 through 6, while the latter came from Episodes 1 through 3, which were the newer ones. I get this, having lived through the Star Wars phenomenon, but I wonder how confusing its going to prove to future generations of film buffs or if they'll even notice or wonder why the "first" trilogy's special effects are so much more advanced than the "second," which actually came first. Wait, I have a headache.)

Back on topic. The Parade was great as always. The teachers blast a mix CD with modern music that can be stretched to fit the theme. Stuff that really works like Ghost Busters to stuff that doesn't fit at all, like Soul Man. The kids line up by class, and grade by grade, they parade two laps around the playground while the parents line the boundaries and cheer. Katie brought her youngest, three-year-old Gracie, who insisted on wearing her furry duck costume from last year, and has perfected "quacking" now that she's older.

After the parade, we headed back to the kids' classroooms to join in their Halloween parties, which have kind of deteriorated over the years, in my opinion. I've been attending this event since my first born was in Kindergarten, so I've seen the evolution first hand. There used to be games, music, bobbing for apples, or donuts on a string and things like that at the class parties. Now it's just handing out the snacks, eating, and going home early with Mom. No games or fun, so it's not really a party at all. Just a snack.

One part of the continuing evolution I liked (and it surprised me that I liked it) was that the fourth grade teacher had only healthy snacks. No candy, but deli meats, cheese, crackers, cucumber sandwiches, pretzels, nachos and salsa, and punch. Normally I would whine loudly to let the kids have their darn junk food and be kids for goodness sake. But this year, it seemed right somehow. The kids would be loading up on sugar later that very evening anyway. So why not serve something a little on the healthy side beforehand? The kids ate and didn't seem to mind at all. And that surprised me. There were also Tootsie Rolls and halfmoon cookies.

The second graders, on the other hand, had the usual, cupcakes and cookies and chocolate and punch. And that didn't seem out of line either. To each their own, I guess.

At any rate, we hung with the kids for awhile after the classroom parties, and then we headed back to my place. We stopped at the tiny general store on the way home to pick up a bag of treats in case we got any trick or treaters. I live in the middle of nowhere so it's unlikely, but I did get one last year, so there was a chance. We bought a bag of mini-Reese's, and started for my place. Then one of the girls noticed the ducky costume lying on the back seat. Gracie's Duck! And she would need it for trick or treating! We turned around and headed back, delivered the costume, and headed home once again.

Back at my place, the evening rapidly turned into a typical girls' night in. I've missed them. We had purchased deli-sandwiches for dinner at the general store, along with diet sodas and chips. A treat for us since we really hadn't indulged at the school parties. At home we spread out our munchies, and flipped on the TV, put on comfy clothes and stretched out our legs. We had our evening viewing pre-planned, but had a couple of hours to kill before that, so we rented Georgia Rule on Pay Per View, and began our entertainment with that.

I'm no fan of Lindsey Lohan (and I really don't care if I spelled her name right or not.) The girl is spoiled and apparently, kind of stupid. I couldn't help thinking as I watched her acting on the same stage with Jane Fonda, that at Lindsay's age, Jane was a full blown activist, protesting wars, having such a measurable impact on the government that she was practically declared a public enemy, traveling to Viet Nam to make her point, befriending the people there. Meanwhile, Lindsay uses her celebrity status to get into bars and clubs and get away with misbehaving. Really, it bugged me. It must have bugged Jane. She probably wanted to clock the pup upside the head throughout the shooting of the film.

Lindsay played a spoiled little bitch, but one with a reason for acting out. (And I guess the actress has one, too, though so do lots of us, and we don't behave the way she is.) Jane played her grandmother. At any rate, once I got past my dislike of Lohan, I really enjoyed the movie, particularly watching it with my girls. It's a real chick flick, and a real mother-daughter film too. We enjoyed it immensely. Aside for them particularly painful realization of how bad Cary Elwes is looking these days. Guess I'll always want him to look like Westley in The Princess Bride. He hasn't aged well. Nothing that couldn't be fixed with a personal trainer, though.

At any rate, we had a wonderful girls' night in. Not one trick or treater showed up so we munched too many mini-peanut butter cups. And we decided on America's Next Top Model and the Southpark "Imagination" Trilogy rather than horror flicks more typical of the season. (Though earlier in the week I thoroughly enjoyed The Exorocist and Psycho, originals both.) We had a relaxing, fun evening, my two youngest girls and I. And we all needed it.

Women are amazing creatures, so capable of supporting, loving, nurturing each other when its needed. So intuitive about knowing when it's called for. I'm glad I have daughters. =)

And I'd love to hear mother-daughter stories if you have any to share.

Happy Halloween!
Maggie