Boo!

Welcome to my nightmare. Just kidding. Ali’s party was a blast. By popular demand, some pictures of my tricked-out-for-Halloween house — Ali and her friends did all the decorating. Some of these pics look dark now, but seemed okay last night (click for big). I suppose I could have moved the stepladder, and that’s Maddy sprawled on the couch. She was the model for the dead-body-on-the-wall-under-blacklight display, also. We had crappy spider web stuff this year, but the ton of junk food served as good distraction from sub-par decorations!

Ali as Raggedy Ann (as in "Ken as Legolas") welcomed Mr. Rogers (wow, can he play the piano!), several pirates of both genders, a surgeon, a lion, a few French maids, the grim reaper, four transvestites and a female pimp, a Roman statesman (I guess) complete with laurel wreath and red hi-tops, Jesus, Super Mario, I Dream of Jeannie, and "the lead singer of Dire Straits in the ‘Money For Nothing’ video." There were many more. Oh yeah, like the guy who had a "Hello, My Name Is…" sticker on his shirt. That was his costume. I love it!

We even had a thunderstorm! I don’t even know how many kids there were — our living area is pretty big, though, and kids ducked into the kitchen now and then to get some air. They said that it was stifling. I believed them. I even propped the back door open with a shoe for a while, and kids were constantly going in and out the front door.

I presided from the kitchen table, knitting a dozen rows on St. Brigid will serving as chief chaperone (my deputy went to bed early). I did have to make a 9:00 run for more soda-pop — man, it was one-lane traffic on our street! Interestingly, it was boys who noticed and/or asked about my knitting. One of them asked what I was "sewing," but points for him because he actually pulled up a chair to chat for a bit. I think another was hinting that, if I didn’t have anything better to do, he’d like a Manchester-something-soccer-or-other scarf. When another asked what I was making and I told him it was a sweater, he commented that he thought it would be a warm one. Yup.

I wonder how the princess costume sewing-not-knitting is progressing at the Yarn Harlot’s. If you’re looking for some great no-sew costume ideas, go read those comments. Among my favorites were the rain cloud, gum stuck on a shoe, and the Q-tip. Oh, and the highway was pretty good, too. Yesterday afternoon, it came to me — an inside out thrummed hat paired with inside out thrummed socks would be perfect for a knitterly Halloween Q-tip costume!

I’ve never gone all-out for Halloween and always sucked, even when I was a kid, at figuring out what I wanted to be each year. "Hobo" was my stand-by — some big clothes of Dad’s, charcoal on my face, a hat, bandana on a stick if I could find one — five minutes and I was ready.

I made costumes once. Um, make that costume; I never got Ali’s sewn up. They were both going to be Raggedy Ann. Katie was in preschool and, if I may say so myself, she was adorable. Ali was kind of a fussbudget and I doubt she would have worn the costume, anyway, and it’s often so damn cold here at Halloween that it doesn’t matter what you wear, it’s covered by a coat! I think we drew whiskers on her chubby little cheeks and she was a kitty. This year, Ali is finally Raggedy Ann (costume from Goodwill).

I do appreciate good costumes, though, and am always amazed every year by "who" shows up at my door — I anxiously await one family, in particular. A family with five kids who live ’round the corner. Mom and Dad are really, really smart, and so are the kids — and clever, too. One year, the little boy was an astronaut. As I was doling out the goodies, he turned his back on me because attached to his back were empty Pringles canisters bundled together to look like an air-pack, but really they were the most ingenious candy-collecting method I’ve ever seen. While other kids struggled with bags and buckets cutting into their hands as the loot accumulated, he strolled down the street, hands free, carrying it all on his back!

Feeling a bit shorted by my admiration of her brother’s clever costume, one of his sisters asked if I didn’t wonder who she was?

"Well, Meredith, who are you?"

"I’m Queen Nefertiti," she said sweetly!

Ya coulda blown me over with a feather. I swear to God, the kid was no older than 7. How many 7-year-olds know who Queen Nefertiti even is, much less think to dress up as her for Halloween? I was so… gobsmacked*, that I can’t even remember what the other three were wearing!

*I spent lots of time with the Oxford on a job once.