I always underestimate the week before Halloween (I had “sort lipsticks” on my to-do list this week!  really? I am lucky to be getting a load or 2 of laundry done while Sarah has the kids at a birthday party this morning!).  Our family likes to costume-up for the holiday (and since I raised most of them to have this attitude, you would think I would anticipate the situation a little better…) and this year is no exception.

Sarah is a costume-designer by training and goes wild with creative and artistic fervor when Halloween rolls around (oh, and there are standards too!  Historic, literary, cinematographic accuracy matters..).  It is always a team effort, of course (refer back to the previous paragraph – I raised her on home-sewn costumes!) and a lot of rather hectic and harried fun.  Fortunately, Max and Gwen are young enough to be told they will be the peddler and monkey from Caps For Sale (one of their favorite books – but apparently not as well-known in the general community as we would have thought).  And, also fortunately, our husbands are generally willing to be whatever inspires us (with some limits, of course) – this year, George is Robin Hood, Jeff is Little John, and Sarah and I are Sherwood Forest! 

We have been providing costume consultation for other family members, as well:

Least Challenge: son-in-law Jordan who decided (all on his own) to be a Lumberjack and who will costume himself (all on his own, thank you very much).

Most Challenge:  daughter Sasha who called in from Pullman (where there is very little in way of stores) Thursday evening requiring a costume that she could pull off from what she had in her closet, that would be suitable for a grad-school group party, that was not stupid, silly, slutty nor would require explanation…well, you get the idea.  My best suggestion was a Caesar Salad (toga, lots of leaves sewn on, maybe green face paint… Styrofoam croutons…), but she was having none of it.  We went with Cleopatra (a fall-back, but a reliable one).

Not Yet A Challenge:  son Geoff who has not even called about a costume yet – but as he is busy performing in Romeo and Juliet  weekend, he might not "be there” yet.  And he is a theatre guy, so he can probably pull off something on his own.  There might yet be a phone call…

Probably Going To Be A Challenge:  daughter Sonja who is showing up sometime this afternoon with a pile of muslin and the idea of being an Egyptian Mummy with cool make-up and jewelry (probably intending to raid my make-up and jewelry for that).

On a side note, all this Halloween costume work is keeping me distracted from being terribly annoyed by the delay in our alpaca delivery due to the cargo plane bombs yesterday.  Rrrrrr.  Okay, I am still a bit annoyed.  We were suppose to receive the alpaca for our Ombre Blanket Workshop next weekend today – in fact, we had it all planned to wait at Sarah’s house in shifts today to receive it (the delivery company will not just leave it on the porch).  The new delivery date is Tuesday – so it will be here in plenty of time, but I am still annoyed.

Looking back on that last paragraph, I realize that it looks like we are expecting shipment of a real-live alpaca!  Well, no, it is alpaca yarn.  A LOT of alpaca yarn.  In fact, I am expecting the box to be big enough to fit a real-live alpaca!

So, this week has been crazy busy (costumes, life, the Holidays looming…).  There was a sort of definitive hour when I was at the sewing machine churning out a Robin Hood tunic while George was reading aloud to me from the voter’s pamphlet and marking our mail-in ballots with the dvd of Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer playing in the background (keeping Max occupied while Gwen had her nap…yeah, standards fell on that one, but what are y’gonna do?).  It was as if October, November, and December aligned.  It was the Perfect Storm!

Happy Halloween!