Halloween

I didn't realize that I've been missing Halloween these past few years. I just accepted, each fall when I found myself still here, that Halloween wouldn't be much more than some expensive pumpkins at the grocery store and the occasional half-assed party for the kids at school. Halloween isn't the same in Sweden. It isn't one of the traditional holidays (they have All Saints Day, Allhelgonadagen, instead, where you visit the graves of loved ones and light candles etc.) and has only started to appear here due to the prompting of commercial forces hoping to cash in on it. Kids go door to door asking for candy at Easter instead, dressed as "witches": red circles on their cheeks, flowered skirts with aprons, and kerchiefs on their heads.

But now, as we're packing up and sorting through clothes, I find myself repeatedly holding up some skirt or belt or hat or nail polish and saying "This is definitely going in the Get-Rid-Ofs pile..." Then I pause, stare at the item distractedly, and say, "But it could be good as part of a Halloween costume. Maybe I'd better keep it." This Halloween reasoning/planning has led me to keep items for possible hippie, acrobat, coureur de bois, ghost, and queen costumes. I guess I've missed dressing up. I'll probably be so excited this Halloween that I won't be able to decide on just one costume, so I'll be like, 5 things at once.