Holidaze

Preparing for the onslaught of holiday festivities.

By Julie Feinstein Adams

Batten down the hatches. Halloween marks the beginning of the stormy season, by which I do not mean rain clouds, but holidays, raining down, hailing down, pelting my family with costumes and turkeys and potato pancakes and Hannukah candles and Christmas lights and birthday parties.

Yes. My son was born right around Thanksgiving last year. My husband's birthday falls just after New Year's. (My birthday is smack in the middle of summer, as close to the 4th of July as possible without being on top of it. I know; it's like our tribe has a special birthday curse.) This year, we should really just wrap up the groceries and give them to each other, given the current economic crisis.

But first we must get through Halloween...

I bought my 11-month-old son a monkey costume off the Internet, because he's my little monkey. Too obvious? My husband and I will be dressing as zookeepers. Since this is my first year as a mother, I didn't think to wait until the last minute to costume shop. If you're savvy, you did because you know how cheap these things get as the day draws nigh, and probably cheaper still if you buy them on November 1 in next year's sizes. Not to mention how cheap and barely-used the kid costumes are in second-hand stores (I discovered too late), especially the infant costumes.

Don't tell me you made yours? I'm so jealous. I have ideas of being crafty in my life, but rarely the skills or follow through. I often resort to the art of the credit card. *Sigh.* It came with a cloth banana. How could I resist?

We'll be attending two parties this weekend. One at our local YMCA, and one for my moms group which is a combo day after Halloween and you can get one more use out of your costumes gathering, and joint birthday party, since all our little ones were born around October/November.

I don't think we'll get as far as carving pumpkins this time around. We didn't last year either. I suspect that many holiday rituals my husband and I have let slide in our adult life will become important again soon.

My favorite thing about Halloween has always been homemade roasted pumpkin seeds, especially eating the salty shells. Next year...