October 31, 2012: The Best Halloween Ever!

One of the things we loved most about our old neighborhood was Halloween (our Halloweens there were awesome! 2011; 2010; 2009; ETC!). All fall I wasn’t sure how to proceed with Halloween 2012 in our new scenario. Eventually we made grand plans for a Pumpkin Carving Party (to which we had invited all 150 residents of Sayre Village), complete with a pasta dinner (the catering had already been ordered), and then we were to go trick-or-treating with our good friends the Kishore-Famolari family in Easton (the only area near us that planned to trick-or-treat on the 31st instead the weekend before). It was a good plan. But Hurricane Sandy made short work of completely ruining it.

As with most everyone in our region of the county, all-things-Halloween were cancelled outright. We woke up on the morning of October 31st, as Hurricane Evacuees, in a hotel in Rhode Island, and the last thing on our minds was Halloween. In fact, it wasn’t until we reminded them, at around noon that day, that Kyle, Owen, and Meera even realized it was Halloween. When the ramifications of the situation hit them, they were truly distraught. This, one of their very most favorite days of the year — and definitely one of their top 2 or 3 holidays of the year — felt completely ruined. Owen and Meera both cried. Kyle stoically began trying to figure out how to solve the problem. And Braydon and I had bigger fish to fry: like, trying to get home and attempt to get life on track. We hit the road that day, headed back to Pennsylvania, with no plans whatsoever for Halloween 2012.

But I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that sitting in a large plastic bin, in our basement storage area, were my kids’ 2012 Halloween costumes. Costumes I had worked hard to assemble over the past few weeks. Costumes that they had been so excited about. Costumes they’d probably outgrow by next year. And three big orange pumpkins were sitting in our apartment, just waiting to be carved. It seemed so wrong to just forego Halloween completely. Plus, there were still some students on campus. Students who surely had all sorts of crazy Halloween plans, that were now dashed. Granted, there weren’t many students around, but what were those few going to do?– just totally bypass Halloween this year? It all just seemed not right.

So, on the highway, as Braydon drove and the bambinos watched videos in the backseat, Mama and some exceptionally awesome LU students hatched a Halloween plan via text messaging.

Lehigh had been evacuated, but there were a few students still on campus, including about a dozen Gryphons (student resident assistants) and some Student-Athletes. These college students hadn’t had an easy past couple of days, and surely Halloween was just about the last thing on their minds, which made what they did for my three kids that night even that much more extraordinary.

By the time we got home, a plan was in place. A plan which turned out to give my kids the best Halloween EVER… thanks entirely to 7 Lehigh Gryphons and 4 Lehigh Football Players.

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We carved pumpkins!

We turned off all our lights, listened to Night On Bald Mountain, and admired our jack-o-lanterns! (don’t worry LU Res Life! — no candles — those are battery-operated tea-lights inside)

And then we had the great reveal: Owen, Kyle, and Meera’s 2012 Halloween costumes!— Santa Claus, The Easter Bunny, and The Tooth Fairy!!!

(The costumes were Kyle’s idea and we ran with it. Best J-M costumes ever!!!)

The bambinos had never had so much attention on Halloween as they did that night! There was more clapping, cheering, oohing and ahhhing, and smart-phone-photo-taking-facebook-twitter-posting than all of their other Halloweens combined.

And then we all headed out for trick-or-treating. Trick-or-treating in Sayre.

We had it all planned out. We would trick-or-treat to the rooms of the only 4 other people in Sayre (all of whom were part of our evening’s little Halloween festivities group). So, while the group of us went to each of our four stops, the student who lived in each one would run ahead to get ready for our arrival.

First stop, the football players who live downstairs from us! Big knocks on their door, with loud shouts of: “trick or treat!!!”

These guys had just arrived back on campus less than an hour before, so Braydon and I had no idea what (if anything) they’d have to hand out when we trick-or-treated there. Much to my complete amazement, when the door opened, K, O, and M were each greeted with whole fully prepared goody bags full of treats. I was completely stunned. It will be a long time before I forget that completely pre-meditated, simply sweet, act of kindness on behalf of four huge football-playing guys to my three little in-costume bambinos.

Next stop, our Head Gryphon, Sarah’s, room!

Much to our complete surprise, Sarah had somehow managed to rush back to her room and change into complete Flapper costume before our arrival!!! My jaw hit the floor when I saw that she was in costume. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! And then she gave each of the kids a mega-sized Hershey’s bar, which single-handedly led to Owen proclaiming this to be his “BEST NIGHT EVER!”

And we were off again!

When we got to Arielle’s, she was dressed up as a witch!

Kathryn and Olivia were dressed up when we got there too!

There were four stops on our Trick-or-Treat route this year. But each was crammed full of more Halloween spirit than 100 stops combined. And the love was spilling over, and it was just exactly right to make these three trick-or-treaters as happy as could be!

After trick-or-treating, we headed home…

…for pizza, and salad, and roasted pumpkin seeds, and Halloween candy, and playing.

It was all very heart-warming and soul-soothing in the midst of a very intense and draining hurricane of a week. And it was that for all of us that night — not just for my family of five, but for my much-loved friends/neighbors/students too.

Luckily, the Candy Witch had been prepared several days in advance this year. So, much to the bambinos’ delight, we even had a visit from the Candy Witch later that night!

We kept all of our Halloween traditions, only this time around they had lots of fabulous new twists. It was all good.

So, despite having moved, and despite a hurricane of historic proportions, and despite Halloween being officially cancelled, we ended up having the most unforgettable, most unique, most heart-warming Halloween ever.

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Dear Kyle, Owen, and Meera,

This year you were The Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, and The Tooth Fairy for Halloween! It was awesome! You were so adorable, and so joyful, running around Sayre like the happiest three kids on the planet.

The three figures you dressed up as represent what can be the very best of childhood joy and magic. These mythical characters, in the imaginations of many, gift children all over the world with treats, presents, money, and — most of all — happy excited thrill. They make kids feel special. But in real life, it is real people who do these things for children. Not just parents, but everyone involved every step of the way, on the mornings of Easter, Christmas, after a tooth falls out, and every single day and night of the year. I hope that you three are learning well from living on campus. We have a community here. A community filled with lots of good people. And the fact that they are all 18-21 year olds means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of true community. These are our neighbors and friends, and although they are also my students, we can learn from them. I want you to never forget the lessons they are teaching you about what it means to pull together, pull through, and make good happen. They made joy and magic for you this Halloween. And someday, I want you to follow their lead and do the same for others.

Happy Halloween my sweets! It was the best ever!

love, Mommy

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