Halloween used to be so easy. Normally, it took one trip to Wal-Mart when my oldest daughter was a little girl, and we had a costume. She donned it and everybody thought she was cute. We would take her to our church's Halloween alternative, Fall Festival. She would come back with a bucket full of candy and a few prize trinkets and we had one happy girl. No more. Now, my 3-year-old and 6-year-old are still easy. As in days of old, I took them to Wal-Mart, turned them lose and they both came back sporting a costume. My teenager didn't like the offerings in either Wal-Mart or K-Mart. We took her to the Halloween store and had no luck there either. She is into Japanese imported cartoon about "Sailor Moon," and she wanted to be one of those characters. They were not to be found in our usual outlets. We then turned to the Internet. After some searching, my daughter found the costume she wanted. With shipping and handling, it cost $70. It was roughly twice what both costumes for my little ones cost. I relucantly agreed. It was custom-made costume and it was beautiful on her. Mom didn't think it did a good job covering her ever emerging figure. However, after a couple of modifications, it was finally approved. In the days leading up to Halloween, I felt badly about the big cost difference. I was at a party store looking for something else and found accessories to both of their costumes and picked them up. I brought them to the house fully prepared to defend my purchase. Mom shocked me. She said it was good initiative on my part. I was so glad I did. My son's best friend wore a similar costume and he had an accessory. I'm just relieved the Little Guy didn't have to feel like he was outclassed. Last night, I helped set up and work one of the booths at church. Once I finished, I wanted to take a break, but was then told my teenager was leaving early to go to a Halloween Party of a classmate. I sighed. She was always satisfied just to attend the church function before. We finished up at the Fall Festival and I took the kids to McDonald's. The featured fare of pulled pork sandwiches didn't appeal to them. As we headed home, my babies got entangled in a fight over French fries. I had to whip the SUV over and settle the fight. I reviewed my Sunday School lesson for today and dozed off on the couch. It was time to go pick up my teenager. I got there 10 minutes before the party was slated to break up. However, the kids were still going strong with a bonfire. The hostess offered me a bowl of chili and I enjoyed that while the party started to break up. We noticed the full moon over the subdivision and thought it was appropriate for Halloween. It had been quite a day with a function at school, a birthday party for the one of the Little Guy's friends and a busy night. I'm afraid future Halloweens aren't going to get any easier. It's not going to be much of a relaxing holiday in the coming years. At least I still have Thanksgiving. All we need is a turkey and yams for that one, right? | 
