Justice Wears a Witch's Hat

"What is it about you and Halloween?" my friend asked.

"C'mon! What's not to love about Halloween?" I replied. "Candy, costumes, creepy stuff ... everything about it is perfect."

My response was absolutely 100% the truth, but as I thought about it a bit more, I realized that wasn't the entire story. I have loved Halloween more than any other holiday for as long as I can remember for one very simple reason.

It is the ultimate equalizer.

Whether your parents make $12,000 per year or $12,000 per month, your chances of having a great costume are equal. Expensive costumes are no better than cheap ones. It's all about creativity.

When you're wearing that plastic Strawberry Shortcake costume complete with the fake-grin on the mask, no one knows who you are unless you give them a hint. You can hide amongst those who are not like you while standing right out in the open.

How much candy you manage to collect is limited only by how far your legs will take you. Strategy plays a part, of course, but life has a way of evening things out there as well. You go ahead and nab full-size candy bars at the giant houses with the beautiful lawns. I'll stick to the trailer parks with doors that are just steps apart. I can trick-or-treat at five or six houses in the time it takes you to walk down one mega-sidewalk.

The spirit of Halloween doesn't skip over your house in the bad years like Santa does. Sometimes you have to go find it, but it's there.

It doesn't matter who you are, who likes you, how poor you are, what you look like ... nothing matters. Halloween is an equal opportunity holiday. The fun is there to grab if you just reach out and take it.

I Plan On Celebrating Thanksgiving Late As Well

I am genetically pre-disposed to eating candy on October 31st. I didn't realize that fact until this very moment, but there it is. I *want* candy. However, the trick-or-treating hasn't happened yet, so there is no candy.

Stupid Hurricane Sandy.

(I'm conveniently ignoring the part where there is a giant plastic cauldron filled with candy staring at me from across the room right now. If I eat one more piece of the candy I bought to hand out to trick-or-treaters, I'm going to have to go buy more. I'd much rather steal from my kid's stash.) (Mostly because I didn't buy Peanut Butter Snickers. What the heck was I thinking?)

With the rescheduling of trick-or-treating due to bad weather apparently came a newfound ability to procrastinate all things Halloween even more than I usually do. The decorations aren't all up because we had to take them down when it was stormy and windy. The pumpkins aren't carved because chaos has been reigning supreme over our evenings. The treat bags aren't assembled because Alexis' school party was also postponed because of Hurricane Sandy.

And I haven't taken any worthwhile photos of Alexis in her costume yet this year.

Whoops.

I guess 2012 will go down in the books as the year that the Halloween photographs all happened in November. At least I had things done on time every other year ...

Halloween 2006--The Screamapiller (Also the only costume I ever got to pick.)
Halloween 2007--Funshine Bear
Halloween 2008--Minnie Mouse

Halloween 2009--Violet

Halloween 2010--A Witch

Halloween 2011 -- Vampire

Finding Inspiration

He stood in the middle of the stage, a broom in one hand and darkness surrounding the other. A single spotlight shone down as he swept the dust back and forth.

Swish.

Swish.

Tap.

Swish. 

Swish.

Tap.

Alexis sat mesmerized. She didn't know what to expect of the show, but that didn't really matter. The girl was born with music in her heart, rhythm flowing through her blood, and a tune in her head.

Swish.

Swish.

Tap.

Swish. 

Swish.

Tap.

"Momma, he did a Slap Step!" she whispered. Hundreds of dollars in dance lessons has done something. The kid can identify tap dance steps.

The man with the broom was joined by another man with another broom.

Swish. Swish.

Swish.

Tap. Tap.

Swish. Swish.

Swish.

Tap. Tap.

And another man. And another man. Alexis wiggled in her seat, again and again. Her heart couldn't ignore the tune being played with some brooms and dust. She wanted to dance with the crowd of men standing on stage.

And then the men were joined by someone new.

"Momma! Look! It's a girl!" Alexis squeal-whispered. She was completely smitten with the one female on stage.

"MOMMA! Now there are two girls!" Alexis squeal-whispered a little louder a few moments later. She was overjoyed to see that there were women in the show ... role models ... females she can look up to.

Alexis is looking for women to be her role models. It happens every day in her every interaction. She's trying to figure out where women fit in this world. She wants to know what they can do, how they should act, how powerful they can be.

Here's to hoping I'm doing an OK job of teaching her that the sky's the limit.