I Hate Halloween...Costumes

I can remember many Halloweens and the costumes that my kids either loved or hated. It always seemed like a lot of time and trouble for an hour of collecting candy! My suggestion has always been for each family to buy 5lbs. of candy they already know their kids like, throw it out in the middle of the living room floor, and say, "Go get it, Kids." That would also insure that it would all be eaten and there wouldn't be rock-hard 'not-liked' candy still hanging around at Christmas.

I never allowed the "gory, bloody, axe-in-head" kind of costumes and really didn't like the cheap-looking ones at the big stores either, so-o-o I usually made their costumes (hmm...perhaps that's why I don't like Halloween). I made some memorable ones: Miss Piggy w/ pearls, white gloves, golden curls, etc.; a full-body robot with 'bleep-bleep' sounds; a wrinkled old lady, complete with hat and cane; a witch with green oatmeal face make-up and a wart on her nose; a sailor; and probably my most memorable costume of all, was turning two of Kalisha's sisters into the California Raisins...they were young women going to a grown-up party.

I was always recruited to make my grandchildren's costumes too. Sometimes they were excited when they made their choice, but then turned into ungrateful gnomes when it was time to wear them. LOL

So, now comes Kalisha. She really was never comfortable in a costume of any kind. Too many sensory issues. She just wanted to go and collect candy. For the past couple of years, she could have gone to a party/dance at a local service provider. I could never talk her into going. This year however, since the girls in her Friday cooking group were all going, she wanted to go, also.



When I asked what she wanted to dress as, she said, "A Colts football player." I should have known; what else would she want to be? I'm thinking this is going to be a piece of cake. She owns everything COLTS already. A helmet, some shoulder pads, a football and we're good to go. The first problem was finding a helmet. She posted on FB that she needed one, she called every store possible for a realistic looking plastic one, she even got the phone number of a local high school football coach to ask if she could use a practice one. (Does she know this coach? No, she just wanted a helmet)



Her brother-in-law offered her a real helmet from his grade school days. A little small, but serviceable. I kept asking her to put her jersey on so I could make some shoulder pads. I painstakingly painted a blue horseshoe on each side and found 2 small removable Colts tattoos for her face.

She decided against carrying a football, didn't want to use the tattoos and didn't want the shoulder pads or to even wear the jersey. Okay......... at this point, I didn't care if she went in her pajamas; I just wanted her to go and enjoy herself.

She wore a Colts sweatshirt and jeans and carried her helmet. When I dropped her off, she put her helmet on the table and sat with a couple of girls she knew.


I came back a few hours later and found her in a group of people all dancing to, "We are family...."

She said she never did put the helmet on at the party, but she had a great time.

Mission accomplished.