Cross-posted at MamaDrama
Halloween is my favorite holiday. I relish each moment leading up to the day,when every grocery store has aisles of glowing plastic ghouls and colorful sequined costumes, and every abandoned house becomes “haunted”. When I was little my mom made our costumes and my sister and I happily wore them for years at a time, until we finally outgrew them. We’d stand outside, listening for witches who flew the night sky, and we’d shiver with excitement in the cold air. And then in college I still held on to the tradition of dressing up but instead moved toward the shimmery adult costumes, skin-tight catsuits and prohibition-era flappers and mideval peasant girls with enough cleavage bring King Richard back from the dead. Even when Hailey was born I’d still dress up Elvira-like to give out candy to the neighborhood children. I’d stand on the porch and smell the night-breeze laced with fires from chimneys and I’d long to run down the streets looking for ghosts in the night.
But this year I’ll retire my low-cut dresses and velvet cloaks for a more sedate, older look. Still a witch, but this time a bit more like Samantha’s Aunt Clara. Tonight I’ll be the mommy standing in the back of the room while my little ladybug attends her first Halloween party. I’ll be there when she holds her breath to listen for witches flying in the night sky and when she shivers with excitement I’ll silently debate whether or not to force her to wear a sweater over her costume.
And it will be good, but different, as I suppose it should be, as excited little children grow up to become mothers of excited little children.
But maybe, just maybe, tonight when the moon is high and the party is over and Hailey is fast asleep I’ll pull her from her car seat and as I carry her inside I’ll pause and hold my breath to listen for the witches too.
I am so totally in love with the last paragraph.
Yes.
It seems that every time we pass on a tradition to our children there is a period of mourning the time when we were participants in the same tradition.
And now we are observers.
How very lucky Hailey is to have a mama who knows how to grow up so very gracefully!
Wait a minute. What? We have to grow up? I hope you hear the witches!
I loved every bit of this.
I hope you both have a simply magical time.
*sniff tear* *awww*
Also: I see your Medieval Peasant cleavage and raise you my Renaissance Tart cleavage. Except the dresses are at my parents’ house.
I still like to get dressed up, too, and usually do for work and for the evening. I’m trying to sort out the how to keep her warm issue, too, since it’s suddenly gotten cooler. I hated that fight with my mom when I was a kid…
it IS different, isn’t it? when i was single i used to have this amazing halloween parties. and now, well….not so much.
and yet those witches, they keep flying. i just need to listen harder.
I heart you. Bittersweet, melancholy and all.
Aww, Jen, you threw a curve ball here. I headed over for a luscious piece of smart-assery (yep, it’s a word) and I get this beautiful offering instead.
Somehow though, it’s just right.
Oh you. Me too.
Julie
Using My Words
cackle cackle cackle….hmmm hmmm
What a beautiful post, made me a bit sad really.
What the heck, you didn’t use the word “fuck” once. Your slipping Jenny.
(Actually it was a very poignant post that almost made me tear up. Almost.)
I was never big on holiday’s until I had kids. Xmas, Tgiving, birthdays and Halloween were just one more day to me until marriage and children.
Last year my son broke my big toe, he was so excited that he was jumping up and down and landed on my toe. Neighbors and wife thought this was hysterical. This year I am wearing boots.
Come to think of it a little KFP would have cured me right up.
Cute post…except, I’m not sure I’m ready for grown up demure Jenny. I think being Elvira at a pre-school halloween party would ROCK! Maybe this is why I don’t have children. hmmmm.
The magic of Halloween is intoxicating no matter what age. Me thinks you are a Wiccan at heart! Blessed be!
…nostalgically sweet…
OOOooo! But I thought you were gonna end with slippin’ on a catsuit or wearing some bosom-heaving peasant dress ;).
This is sweet, and beautiful. It makes me actually like Halloween, which I never have before.
I adore Halloween too. You are not alone.
Lovely post lady. That vicodin is doing you up right!
Oh I love this post. I bet Hailey will love Halloween just as much and you will enjoy watching it even more through her eyes.
Boo-Tee-Full ! Are there any openings in your therapy sessions and do they accept Crazy Witches?
I know this is a comment long after the original post three years ago and I doubt you’ll see it but….
I’m a really strange individual. I have quite a few of my childhood qualities left (laughing as boisterously as I want, keeping fantasies alive, feeling excited about Halloween)….and yet, I sometimes feel older than people who are three times my age (I’m 22). I have been called innocent and wise. I just have to say…when my baby boy (who is only eight months right now) is old enough to want to go trick or treating…I won’t just hang around in the backround. Just because I’m an adult doesn’t mean people’s expectations have to apply to me, I will act every bit as excited as him. I will not hide my almost obsession with everything supernatural despite other adults doing so. Just because I am an adult, does not mean I will not let anyone see what I think or feel. We adults have the right to run around Halloween night like we are wicked sprites, just like children…to be those merry wanderers of the night.