Happy Halloween!

Halloween is my favorite holiday.

Most people give me a quizzical look when I say that. They wonder how this could possibly be. I think an ex-boyfriend thought me slightly sacrilegious because of it.

For the record, though, I'd like to say that I'm not a hellion. I don't worship the devil, nor do I ignore the apparently more acceptable holidays of Christmas and Thanksgiving. Let me tell you why. I'll begin with a list:

• Candy!
• Plastic, orange pumpkin baskets. They're small, but so cheerful!
• Carving pumpkins! My favorite part is scooping out the insides!
• Lightly salted and baked pumpkin seeds!
• Being creative with costumes!
• Seeing the creative side of other people!
• Late-night parties!

Besides all this, Halloween ushers in the rest of the holiday season! It's the first in a long line of holidays, so when you get to Halloween, you know that there are a lot of other great holidays soon coming!

But let's get a little more serious . . . Here's are some psychoanalytical reasons behind my love of Halloween:

Halloween was always a happy time in my family's house. My mom sews, so she almost always helped my brothers and sisters and me make our costumes. Just imagine being nearly anything you want! A seamstress for a mother is a child's Halloween dream. My dad was happy, too, that his wife could make the costumes -- with six children in the house, spending money on costumes in the store was much worse than spending money on material to sew. Not only were my parents saving money on the costumes, though, they were not spending money in large quantities, period. With Thanksgiving, you spend a lot of money on food, and with Christmas, you spend an exorbitant amount on clothes and toys and gadgets.

While I know my parents love each other, I also cannot remember a Thanksgiving or Christmas when they did not get into a loud financial argument. According to my dad, mom spent too much. According to my mom, dad didn't spend enough.

The middle ground? Halloween. Although my mom probably buys too much candy, she still never spends very much on it. How could one do that, anyway? There's only so much candy you can get . . . I think my dad is pleased with that.

My dad also enjoys the Fall; he likes walking outside on crisp, cool October evenings. So he enjoyed taking my sister and me out to trick-or-treat. He was probably just as excited to walk around the neighborhood as we were, so it made the whole night that much more fun.

So there you have it.
Halloween is my favorite holiday.


Thing I'm thankful for: chocolate!