Halloween (All Hallow's Eve) AKA single-most-frantic-day of the year

Our porch. The beer-pumpkin is Shawn's (just to be clear) 

It's become a norm in many of today's schools that they do not celebrate Halloween. I know many schools still do, but a number of schools choose to celebrate in different ways due to the diversity of the population. Also, some Catholic schools choose to celebrate Nov. 1, which is All Saints' Day, instead.

I am not against schools choosing NOT to celebrate a holiday if that serves the school better - what IS more difficult is that all of the schools my boys have attended have chosen to celebrate something different by allowing students to dress up in a different way either on Halloween or the next day. 

Case in Point: 

 Today is "presentation day" at C and H's school. H's class is currently studying the Romans, so all of the kids could dress as Romans today. Flash back to 11pm (yes...AT NIGHT) last night when Shawn and I are running all over the house trying to find anything that will make H look like a Roman. He, of course, vetoes everything deemed "uncool" (because he's 8 and I guess this matters now) and I am reduced to cutting up a very nice white pillow case to make a tunic (don't judge me, Pinterest crowd). Thank goodness my children have been obsessed with The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings and Star Wars for a while now, so we had a spare cape that made the cut. It was 22 degrees F this morning, so H had to add compression pants under the pillow case (I bet those Romans wished they had Under Armor!)

 Once at school, H was surrounded by his fellow Romans (with much more crafty parents) and his class recited the pledge of allegiance in Latin. At least, I think they did because the entire thing started 10 minutes early and I walked in during the clapping at the end. A nice mom I had just met videoed the presentation and H saw me... so it all worked out OK in the end.

It's 1 minute (plus a bit) long (and looks fuzzy), but enjoy!
(H is behind the girl with the teal blue striped toga  - on the right)

Roamin' with my Roman (ha ha - had to be done). 

C, on the other hand, insisted he wasn't supposed to dress up and ended up being one of 4 boys who did not dress like Incas, Aztecs or Mayans (the theme of his class). I have to say I was more than a little grateful to him. He had a paper mask, but he didn't wear that either. I won't add his class' presentation, because it's a bit longer and hard to hear (they each had a part). 

This brings me to our eldest child, whose school party and dressing up will happen tomorrow for All Saints' day. He's planning to dress up as Bl Pier Giorgio Frassati (one of my intercessors) but only because he's a modern saint and wore regular dress-up clothes. 

I don't think Dan will wear a suit, but there are other pictures where he's just wearing a nice shirt and pants. in D's words, "Better than a uniform!" Which might be news to all of you office workers who have to dress nicely every day. 

Now, of course my boys will be trick-or-treating tonight (I even moved my chemo to tomorrow for it) and they are going to be wearing 3 TOTALLY different costumes (maybe not D as he can't decide if he cares or not). They will be completely high on sugar but still have to wake up for school tomorrow morning. This week, we've had 2 snow days (3 for D), one presentation day, tomorrow will be another class party day and everyone will not have slept, be out of their minds on sugar and I will be entering a chemo-coma. 

I'm literally looking forward to Christmas Eve because it will be so much more peaceful - even with Mass and last-minute wrapping and the fact that my brother's family will also be here and it will be crazy. But at least they can all wear whatever they want (after Church clothes, of course). 

Chemo #8 tomorrow morning. All those Saints and my saintly friends and family are praying hard because chemo is awful. Scans #2 next week, so I'll keep you posted!!