Halloween

Halloween was on a Monday. Not a problem. Evan was his perennial Harry Potter with new robe (he finally outgrew Vivian's black dress with a frilly collar that looked like a robe). Zizi was the cutest ice cream cone. Vivian, Ava and Eleanor were rock star princesses (an abbreviation for: "dress up in fancy clothes, do your hair up and put make-up on". The neighborhood came out in droves to celebrate. I wore a costume Vivian made for me: somewhere between Frankenstein's Monster and a ship wrecked zombie.

Vivian, Ava and Eleanor ran from door to door, too busy to grab candy. Evan chatted away with the candy givers, other children (including two other Harry Potters he met) and adult strangers (Jacques Cousteau and his wife, a jelly fish) enjoying and savoring the evening.

Vivian had a Halloween themed choir and music evening the week before Halloween when the Austin Girls Choir turned into the Austin Ghouls Choir. Then, the Friday evening of Halloween weekend, Jo and I went to a "wig & stache" party and we dressed for it. Last year on Halloween I was stuck trying to get back to Austin from Hyderabad (after Fall break in London, the kids and Jo returned to Austin while I detoured via Hyderabad. Then it rained 17 inches at Bergstrom airport knocking it out of service for days. Eventually I took the opportunity to visit Alu instead of hanging around in a hotel near JFK). So this year I was glad to celebrate.

The kids played around with masks and wigs all week. Vivian made a bunch of sugar skulls but decorating them has been a slower process. We missed not celebrating with Simran this year but she dropped off some Halloween cookies that the kids quickly polished off.

On Tuesday I went to Central Market and saw that pumpkins had given way to Christmas things already. It's going to be a long couple of months ahead.