Halloween Happiness

I love Halloween. What a wonderful holiday. I grew up in North Dakota and I have Trick or Treated in blowing snow. Who cares if you need a parka and boots? People give you candy for showing up at their door. I don't discriminate against the older trick or treaters, either. A kid is a kid as long as their heart is in it, so if you ring my bell, I will give you candy.

I buy a lot of candy. It would mortify me if I ran out and had to turn off my porch light early. But the children don't show up at the door like the old days and I always have candy left over. For that reason, and because I'm kind hearted, I buy good candy. None of the super cheap stuff that kids just leave in their bag until they are desperate for a sugar fix; there has to be something chocolate in the handful each child gets.

Sometimes I dress up to answer the door. It depends on how I'm feeling and the weather. Today it is warm in Houston - high 80s I'd guess - and I am already stifling from staying in my church Halloween clothes all day. I wore black slacks and a black, long-sleeved shirt with a sleeveless, bright orange summer top over it. It actually came off very well, but it is too warm and I should have changed. Oh, well ... I'm just lazy.

Last night we went to a fabulous Halloween party at our friends Joanna and Tom Crawford's house. The Crawfords host a party for Halloween every year. The food is luscious, usually hot and spicy to match the season, and the drinks are plentiful. Children are welcome if they are with parents and almost everyone wears a costume.

Michael won't go, but Tori and I went with Alix and Adam. Tori was some kind of dark princess, not a "name" character, but very cute. Alix wore her Renaissance Festival costume and looked perfectly "middle-aged." Adam went as his Mormon "cousin" Magenta from Ogden, Utah. Pretty funny to see him in a dress. I went as Parvati Manners, the Eurasian daughter of the main characters from "The Raj Quartet." If you look back in my archives for August and September, you'll find a number of references to those four books - I really liked them. Anyway, I accomplished this by wearing a sari.

The sari is a wonderfully comfortable piece of clothing. Imagine seven yards of silk wrapped around you with a few folds (actually eight) and tucks here and there. The tail of the fabric flips over your left shoulder and you're dressed. Of course, you wear a shirt. The Indians have special shirts with matching petticoats that coordinate with the sari; I bought a shirt at Target that matched my sari's color and wore a long slip. It worked for me.

I got a quick lesson in how to wrap it from the man who sold it to me and then I looked on the internet for a refresher. According to one internet site, Indians consider it very immodest if you bosom shows, even though you are wearing a blouse.