Halloween

This is my favorite time of year -- the air is crisp, the leaves are doing their thing that they do, the food I cook and eat is heartier, and the earth just smells all loamy and, well, earthy. I get to wear sweaters and turtlenecks and boots and mittens, and when it gets cold at night the air has a steeliness to it that usually means snow is not too far behind.

It's also time for my favorite holidays: Halloween and Thanksgiving. Halloween because I loved dressing up as a kid (and teenager and college student, and even now...) and Thanksgiving because that's the time my family all gets together and overeats. (We are Jewish, so we don't do the whole Christmas thing, and Hanukah really isn't enough of a draw for us to fly back home to Ohio.)

My mom used to make the best costumes for us -- we were clowns, witches, cowboys, the musketeers, bunny rabbits, robots and one year when we were especially creative I was a hot fudge sundae. We never had store bought costumes -- my mom was opposed to them, and so I grew up thinking that every mom made costumes.

So I've been keeping a mental running list of cute ideas for costumes for children who don't have opinions yet (I recognize that there is a time when Mom's ideas are no longer wanted). And I'm pretty much ready to start sewing now, thank you.

Tonight, I will give out candy to the many kids who live in our building. And I will laugh at the funny things they say, and be appropriately scared or admiring of their costumes. But I'd rather be on the other side of the door, holding my child's hand.