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Posted October 28, 2008 by Charlene Frias

Thinking back, some of my fondest memories were of Halloween.

Do you remember the anticipation and the eagerness of choosing a costume? In our family, the excitement began with selecting a costume-in-a-box off the shelf at K-mart.  

I recall my brother and I with our faces sweating behind plastic masks: him as Frankenstein, and me as Bozo the Clown. How appropriate! My mom snapped a Polaroid of us arm-in-arm posing in our equally plastic "costumes" that more resembled character aprons. In all of their simplicity, the costumes held the magic of the holiday within the plastic ties that wrapped them around our tiny frames.

And now, it's that magical time again. Dalia mentioned she wanted to decorate her room with cobwebs, goblins, and witches.

Brave, I thought. The fact that she ran out of her room last night screaming, "I’m scared, Mommy! I was thinking about a witch!" leads me to believe that this probably won’t happen.  

Trying to divert the conversation away from scary witches, I brought up the subject of our first "Beach Halloween." It was the first time she went trick-or-treating with friends, and sharing the evening with five families and their little fairy princesses parading to the beach made the night extra magical.

I asked Dalia what she liked most about that night.

"Lighting up a pumpkin, getting candy. I liked Kit-Kats, and I liked Halloween stickers, the sparkly ocean, everything."

That Halloween evening, we met our friends at the beach so our kids could have a pizza party before we headed off to trick-or-treat. We had high hopes that we could stave off candy bingeing if their tummies were full.

Dalia trudged across the sand in her Belle costume, managing to remain composed as she approached her girlfriends. Five beautiful fairies stood before her squealing in delight. She had obviously missed the Fairy memo, but she was no less excited as she watched 10 fairy wings circle around her, bringing her into the group.

Each little fairy and Belle had carried a tin-can lantern, while I had packed my bag with votive candles, so we could light the perimeter of our gathering.

Once settled, the girls shuffled through their bags to find trinkets they had brought to share. First, Olivia reached in for a handful of spider rings. Quincie tossed out Halloween beach balls, Reese offered up a selection of Halloween stickers, and Kyra pulled out some skeleton clackers. Katie and Dalia both shared in bringing the bags to hold the goodies.  

It wasn’t long before we were off to the real fun of the evening: trick-or-treating. So with their flapping wings and curly locks, five fairies and a princess set out to take over the neighborhood. They darted past homes with no fear of the big scary monster planted on the porch, no fear of the scary witch stirring her brew at their feet. Just one simple goal, the same one we all have on Halloween: Get the most candy as fast as humanly possible.

With small feet aching from various pairs of high heels and oodles of chocolatey smiles, we gathered the girls back to the beach for departure. Dalia ran to me with the biggest grin and said, "I love you, Mommy."

Yes, she was in a princess costume. Yes, she was holding a bin’s worth of candy in her pumpkin. And yes, she was with all her friends. But what better time for a moment of reflection?

I love you too, sweetheart. Happy Halloween.