Halloween has long been one of my favorite holidays. I think my parents had a lot to do with that. We had a lot of leeway to choose our costumes. Like when I really wanted to be a cheerleader, but I insisted on having a baton and not pom-poms. No one knew what I was. Mom and Dad were also willing to step in and come up with some crazy ideas when we kids didn't know what we wanted to be and help us come up with some killer costumes. It really balanced out.

One year, my dad, being the tech-ed teacher, rigged up a helmet and shoulder contraption that made me look about six feet tall. He used window screen to hide my face and added 'eyes' made of glowing yellow lights (confiscated from flashlights and wired to batteries) that I could control with a switch. There was a hand-made cloak with red lining (that is probably still haunting my parents' attic). I essentially looked like a Ringwraith, long before I knew what the Black Riders were. I still have fond memories of an adult woman gazing up at where any normal person would assume my head was. I waved at her, and showed her my face was actually two feet lower than she thought. Tricking an adult remains a highlight of my childhood Halloween feats. It was an awesome project and remains one of the coolest costumes to date.

Our kids are already excited about carving pumpkins and decorating the house (with no small credit going to the movie 'Curious George's Halloween Boofest').

And then, when I was asking, not telling, two of my children said they wanted to be dragons. The third declined to answer, but I imagine that peer pressure may incline her to be a dragon as well. Or not but the fact remains, if they want to be dragons, that means I can only be one thing: The Mother of Dragons.

This is going to be awesome.