Ghouls, Goblins and Britney...Scary

October 31, 2011
Back home, deciding on Halloween costumes was as about as exciting as going to Wal-Mart since that's where the largest costume selection could be found. While China hasn't fully grasped the concept of door-to-door candy pandering, there are ample places to search for costumes. All one has to do is bring in a photo of a costume, dress or whatever to a tailor and couple of days later an almost exact replica is produced. A trip to "Wedding Street", where I've had a couple of formal dresses made, is also an option. We went there to find outfits for book character day at Dulwich. Instead, frugality reared its ugly head and I told the girls we'd make our costumes this Halloween. They only protested for a few hours then went straight to work. I wasn't suprised when Sarah wanted to be a blood-sucking vampire. I figured with our obsession with the undead (Twilight, True Blood, UnderWorld, Salem's Lot), at least one of them would have fangs. Katie stayed in the same genre, but went with a green-faced zombie. Both of them looked pretty ghoulish, but the scariest of them all was Sydney. She came slinking down the stairs in a get-up beyond her years. I thought the twins' Real Housewives ensemble they created last year was bad enough, but seeing Syd as a sexy schoolgirl, Britney wanna-be, just made me feel dirty. Ok, it wasn't that bad, but when we walked down the street on our way to the neighborhood day-before-Halloween-potluck party, I'm pretty sure I heard a couple of mothers gasp.
The party was fun despite the questionable looks I got from several disapproving parents. The girls decorated little pumpkins, which brings up another point. Trying to find pumpkins big enough to carve was next to impossible. Some families found some peach-shaded gourds, but these just didn't scream Halloween to me, so I made do with the sugar pumpkins. I also tried to get creative with my mini cupcakes, frosting them in the shape of a ghost...sort of.
Halloween evening, many of the houses were decorated with spider webs and jack-o-lanterns. We played creepy music and tried to scare the kids as they came to the door for their treats. The girls came home with lots of candy, and since my parents brought some favorites when they visited, we indulged in the chocolatey goodness. For a few hours we almost forgot we were in China.