Charlie Sheen and Angry Birds

Michael came home discouraged yesterday at his workplace's trivia question of the day.  My husband, a trivia guru, scores highly in his office, where they tabulate correct answers of daily questions and award the title of "Office Smartie" at the end of the month to the person who did the best.  Though the title "Office Smartie" has only to do with the ingelligence of the player, and not the Smartie Halloween candy, yesteray's question was appropriately about Halloween.

"Most popular costume for kids, and most poular costume for adults this year," Michael presented.  I threw out tired guesses of Harry Potter ("uh, no,") and Lady Gaga ("Um, so last year.") 

"Try 'Charlie Sheen' for adults and 'Angry Birds' for kids," Michael said.

"Angry what?"

"I know, right?" Michael fumed. "Apparently it's some smartphone game kids are playing.  Whatever."

My mind travelled some hundreds of miles away to Kentucky, where my sister was probably getting ready for her annual appearance as royalty.  Some years ago, digging up a costume of a red velvet cape and crown that she purchased the same day of a Halloween party I was throwing, she sat on the front stoop of her house on Aberdeen Road with a bowl of candy.  She smiled at her costumed little subjects as they skipped up the walk to her porch.  And then she would announce in her sing-song voice, "Happy Hallo-ween from the Queen of Aber-deen!"  One of my favorite parts of Halloween is picturing her on her step-throne, singing the greeting over and over. 

Closer to home, we didn't have to think much about our costume choices. My Dad found us each Dr Seuss T-shirts that say "Thing 1," "Thing 2," and "Thing 3."  Which this year was quite a genious move: Oliver didn't want anything to do with wearing a costume.  He smiled and cheerfully identified his Thomas the Tank getup, but when we approached him with it, he turned away in horror as if it was made of Anthrax.  Last year's astronaut costume was a no-go as well.  But the "Thing 3" t-shirt?  Why, he just thought he was wearing clothes.  Mwooo-ha-ha-ha.

Our little Thing 3 held up pretty well throughout the evening, singing "Tick-o-tweeeee-at" and " 'Appy 'allow-eeeeen!" for the full hour and a half that he insisted for "more houses." We happily obliged, and once he was in bed, stole all of the quality chocolate he so diligently collected.  Having a 2-year-old is pretty great.