October 2004

I’ve never been one to want to go crazy dressing up for Halloween.  Then I became a schoolteacher and realized that even though I was an adult with a grown-up job, I would still be needing to find a costume each October.

My second year as a teacher I had the idea to dress up as Viola Swamp from the Miss Nelson books.  Miss Swamp is the evil substitute teacher who whips Miss Nelson’s class into shape when Miss Nelson is absent.  It turns out that Miss Nelson was really Viola Swamp and acted mean to teach her naughty class a lesson.  I had so much fun pretending to be Miss Swamp.  My first graders were almost positive that it was still me dressed up as Miss Swamp…but there was still a tiny element of uncertainty.  Months later my students would occasionally bring up Halloween and say things like, “We know it was really you. It was. It was really you…wasn’t it…?”

And so a tradition was born.  Once a month my Grandma hosts a dinner for all of her children and their families.  My Mom and Grandma had heard all about my costume and wanted to see it in action so they made the October family dinner a dress-up affair and it’s been that way ever since.  Everyone really got into it:

I think you can pretty much tell what everyone is supposed to be except maybe Dallas who is Nephi and Sarah who is Sonic the Hedgehog.

Here are some other family members in costume at the dinner: