Halloween is by far one of my favorite holidays. My father, having spent the majority of his life in Spain, was exceptionally enthusiastic after moving to the U.S. about this holiday where people dress up in ridiculous outfits & eat a lot of candy. He always made it really fun for us - faking that he wasn't going to dress up, and then surprising us by emerging from the bedroom as a punk rocker....or woman....or the year we went to my mom's work to visit her - my father dressed as a nerd - pretending NOT to be dressed up at all. He continued with the act, thoroughly embarrassing my mom in front of her co-workers. That was pretty funny.

Speaking of my mom. Talk about crafty lady. Good God, that woman would make every single one of our most complicated costumes. From scratch. Pull all nighters at times. I had an appreciation for this labor this year as I saw not one single home-made costume. Including my own. All store bought. Kind of kills the creativity out of the holiday a bit - just running down to Target to pick up the latest version of "Tinker Bell". Some of my fondest memories of Halloween were all the preparations leading up to the big day. Whether it be spending a few hours at the fabric store with my mom picking out the perfect pattern and all the matching fabric - or helping my dad choose all the appropriate accessories at Goodwill or the hardware store.

Don't get me wrong, Halloween was great this year. But, I've really come to appreciate the "old days" before the holiday was so commercial. I'm going to try my best to remember this when I have kids and try to use the holiday as a chance for them to get creative. No matter how hectic our lives are.

I'm with you Cristina, hand made are the best when you can. I don't think Graham ever ever had a store bought. OK some years people couldn't figure out who he was (Indiana Jones) but...

Heard about the bad crap in Castro. Hope everything is OK this morning.

p.s. You guys look great!!!

Your costumes looked great!

You guys look great. Thank-you for the memories. We had a ton of tricker or treaters, even though one of them pointed out that we were the only people offering treats on our block! So of course, we made it worth their while saying, "take as much as you want!"

You guys are fantastic (although I'm a little confused about the pairing).

We always had homemade costumes too (from my mom's friend Paula who made costumes for her kid and all three of us!) and it took me a long time to realize how lucky we were.

Were the girls little cutie pies?

wonderful costumes! My problem with Halloween is that I can never decide what to go as, and then when I do, I have no time left to put together a good costume.