Halloween weekend report

A good but tiring weekend:

• Had the Lynxcub here overnight on Friday night, the high point of which was carving a tiger jack-o'-lantern for him. Yes, this is the second year in a row than I have done that (I think this year's tiger-o'-lantern is better than last, particularly because of the ears), but hey, if the powers that be don't want jack-o'-lanterns to look like tigers, they should not have made pumpkins orange. Said tiger jack-o'-lantern ended up being instrumental in my finally getting him to go to bed, after I offered to light it in the bedroom as a nightlight for him - but then he wouldn't go to sleep because he wanted to stay up all night talking to it, having christened it his "newborn baby kitten". And also make hand-shadows on the ceiling in its light. And jump up and down on the bed making robot noises, though I suppose that may not have had much to do with the tigerkittenolantern...
  
  
• Last night: grown-up Halloween party, chez curgoth and neeuqdrazil. I started out intending to be Irene Adler, but somehow spiders kept finding their way into my costume (no, not real ones, just decorative ones) so I ended up deciding I was a Victorian arachnologist instead. With the way everything turns into a story in my head, I decided that my costume-persona was one of the world's foremost experts on poisonous spiders, with her research funded by the generous estates left to her by her five deceased husbands, all of whom had tragically perished in accidents related to her area of study. This is how one acquires a state-of-the-art spider laboratory when one lives in an era where higher education is not permitted to the more delicate gender.
  
  
• Samhain family circle at the WCC today, with the Lynxcub. Was momentarily alarmed upon arriving to discover that the other parents there had thought I was leading it and I had thought they were. Oops. But it went OK, with me improvising a little ritual, and them coordinating party games for the kids. The Cub swung back and forth, pendulum-like, between being adorable and a holy terror, as is his wont.
  
  I think my favourite bit was the beginning of the ritual when I said "... But first, let's talk about why we're here," and he piped up "I can tell you all about the Day of the Dead!" Since I figured that that and Samhain were at least pretty closely related, I invited him to do that, and he replied, very cheerfully, "That's when you can invite all your dead friends and relatives to come visit with you!" He seems to be really fascinated with that idea - he also tried, after the ritual to convince one of the other kids there to come to our next destination with us, again telling her that she could invite her dead friends to come.
  
  
• Afterwards, fittingly enough, we went to a community Dia de los Muertos celebration at Wychwood Barns. Having things like that happening right near home is one of the best things about the increasing Latin-Americanization of my neighbourhood. There was a mariachi band playing; a beautiful altar set up in the very centre of the Covered Street Barn with flower, fruit, candles, decorative skulls, a carved wooden jaguar, and all kinds of things; and a number of tables with vendors selling various sorts of Latin American foods and crafts.
  
  The Lynxcub, who had not wanted to eat anything at the family circle except for things he wasn't allowed to eat (sugary & artificially coloured junk food, which I tried my best to keep out of his reach) was finally hungry by this point, and ate a chicken tostada, which I was pleased that he liked - he's sometimes averse to trying new things these days, so I'm happy when I can find something he likes. But what he seemed most fascinated with was the altar. We spent a little while looking at it when we first came in, and then after eating he wanted to go back to it. He sat down in front of it and asked me to explain all the different things on it, so I sat with him and we talked about it, and about the symbolism of the skulls, and about the idea of spirits and death in general. It was in pretty simple terms, given that he's only four, but I think it was a good discussion, and he seemed really interested in the whole idea, and seemed to enjoy the whole event.
  
  
• Unfortunately, he ended up having a big meltdown when it was time to go home, because he was tired and wanted to go in the stroller, but it wasn't yet his bedtime, so kettunainen didn't want him to fall asleep yet (because if he falls asleep too early, he will either wake up in the middle of the night, or, at best, at oh-god-o-clock in the morning). So I had to carry him all the way home, with him thrashing, screaming, hitting me, and trying to dive out of my arms onto the pavement, the whole way. I kept thinking he'd eventually tire out and calm down, but he didn't, not until after I finally got him home and Kettu was able to talk to him and defuse him a bit.

By the time I got back home, I was tired enough that I feel asleep at a fairly early point in the evening while reading. I woke up again around 11:30pm, but am probably going back to bed after I post this and take the dog out. Not sure if I'm just exhausted, or maybe coming down with something... I was hoping to go to the Princess Warrior thing at City Hall tomorrow, but don't know if I'll have energy. We'll see... Anyway, time to put the computer to sleep, and myself shortly thereafter.