Some words make no sense until you are of certain age. ‘Halloween’ is not one of them. It made perfect sense to me in Gatlinburg, Tennessee where I first witnessed a Halloween crowd. The whole town came dressed up in a grant scale and since then I knew what’s big about Halloween. At least I thought I knew. But this year I found myself absorbing more Halloween at home enabling Tara’s Halloween fantasies.
This is her first Halloween season after she joined school and until now she did not know much about it. A lot of the information came from school friends as we kept hearing statements. “Daddy Skeletons have body parts – head, chin nose, hands legs and butt”. While we drive to school she looks at a house with carved pumpkins and says “There is an angry guy up there. Don’t say hi to him. He will get more angry”. One day she said. “I don’t want to go to a Halloween party. There is a big spider there and it’s going to bite you and then you become a spider man. “ . We knew someone scared her at school but she could not remember who it is. It’s pointless to ask as all of them talk about Halloween all the time. While dropping Tara to schools kids stop me and ask. “You know what I am going to be for Halloween”? I got better in guessing towards the end. Earlier in the Halloween week, her school set-up a pumpkin patch in their grounds and the preschoolers picked one. That officially kicked-off a lot of events at home and outdoors.
Her friend Jess taught me how to make a Jack O’ lantern. ” You go to a pumpkin patch, buy a pumpkin, carve a scary face and a put a light inside and it glows in the night.” Lesson was given at a pumpkin patch in Irvine where the kids picked up pumpkin, played some games and had a pony ride. Tara wanted a Jack O’ Lantern with a smiley face but when we started carving, she changed her mind and wanted a shark face. There is little room for spontaneity in the middle of carving a pumpkin but at the end she certified it as a shark face. A trip to Wal-Mart pumpkin patch at night was hence saved.
Tara wanted to be a Rapunzel. Her Mommy bought a blond wig to go with her dress. The first opportunity to show off was in Quail Hill Halloween Party. The small park next to home was filled with super heroes fighting each other and beautiful Disney princesses pretending to be in a faraway land. The parade started at the Gazebo just after a pizza dinner and it had a tail wagging tiger, walking chicken, floating duckling, witches on broom; harry potter characters and many more. When the candy filled pinneata broke open, she threw the blonde hair to mommy and raced to fill her treat bag and brought home plenty of candies. Then she made a statement for the records. “I love Halloween Parties”. 
Tara was a Silver Mist fairy at her school party, inspired by a character in the movie Tinker Bell. She woke up in the morning without normal battles and willingly dressed up as a silver mist. When I said I will attach the fairy wings when we arrive at the school, she insisted that I attach them right away and explained. “Dad, Miss Darlene wants to see the Silver Mist with wings”. Her school was full of characters and a lot of them dressed beyond recognition. I really wanted to stay back and take some pictures but could not avoid the 9 O’ Clock meeting.
Today is the official Halloween day. I saw a clown driving a Bentley. At office, colleagues are all minions and the SVP is Gru –inspired by the movie Despicable Me. The divisional CEO was in costumes and there was a team competition and the winners receive party funds. The Irvine Company hosted a pumpkin carving competition at the Plaza in front of the office and whoever came in costumes received a commemorative photograph. So a lot of people turned up with costumes. It was fun to walk outside and every time someone comes across in costumes leaves you wondering what that would be.
Today is the official Halloween day. I saw a clown driving a Bentley. At office, colleagues are all minions and the SVP is Gru –inspired by the movie Despicable Me. The divisional CEO was in costumes and there was a team competition and the winners receive party funds. The Irvine Company hosted a pumpkin carving competition at the Plaza in front of the office and whoever came in costumes received a commemorative photograph. So a lot of people turned up with costumes. It was fun to walk outside and every time someone comes across in costumes leaves you wondering what that would be. 
Tara was talking about ‘cook or treat’. We tried telling her it’s ‘trick or treat’ but I guess she relates it with cooking, a favorite topic of all of us. Kids in costumes started knocking the door as early as 5:30 pm and the candy bowl was half empty in one hour. Tara wanted to do her own trick or treat so dressed up as a Silver Mist and we stepped out with a basket to collect candy. She followed the kids to every house and figured out how it works and after every house she comes back and said " Let us got to some other house" . There was an elder lady dressed up as a witch and dispensing candy in the front door and Tara was reluctant to enter in the beginning. The lady was nice and gave her two packs of candy so she goes " You are a nice witch" , cracking up the lady. She then turned to me and says " Dad, she is a nice witch and I like witches". We retuned home when the bag was full . The candy bowl we kept outside for visitors was empty and a few more showed up but by 9 PM everything was quite settled. Selvan and Shiji joined us at home and we made some mulled wine and called it a day.
