Halloween 2014

I made a decision to try my hardest to enjoy Halloween this year, and not dwell on the anniversary of my dad’s death. I was going to place all my focus on the joy of candy filled buckets and plastic masks.

Mother Nature had other plans.

I left work early and quickly picked up one of the creepiest monkey masks ever built and raced to Lake Shore Drive. The same Lake Shore Drive that had been closed due to massive waves crashing over the road. I cursed myself for getting my traffic news from Bears sports talk radio.

I crept home and collected cousins and wives and brothers and children and we trudged down the street. Almost immediately we were pounded by turns of sleet, snow, rain and, oddly, moments of blue sky. I chalked up the blue skies to my dad and we ran into some parents with red plastic cups.

“Sachin’s parents are giving away whisky!” They shouted.

We ran to Sachin’s house, where the line was almost to the street.  Cup in hand, Halloween got a lot more tolerable.

Elijah, still scarred from our friend Kitty’s motorized zombie (named Bubbles) from 3 years ago, found himself unable to walk up the steps of any house with more than one ghost, goblin or too much of that stringy fake spider web stuff. 

Luca, on the other hand, understood the math of fear versus candy and bounded up every creep fest. Luca would step over a man being eaten by a wolf to get a Snickers Bar.

We eventually made our way to Kitty’s for pizza. Owner of a little girl, Kitty abandoned Bubbles the zombie this year, much to Eli’s psyche’s delight. The rest of night was filled with red wine, screaming kids, an impromptu sleep over and lots and lots of candy.  Just how dad would have wanted it.