The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t

While Halloween ended up going really well, it almost went down in the history books as the worst. halloween. ever.

I’ll explain.

This year SM decided he wanted to be the white Power Ranger. About a week and a half before Hallween wWe headed out to the stores to find it.  After 6 stores we accepted the fact that no one had it in his size (8).  Not one to be easily discouraged, when we got home I headed online and found the costume at Amazon.com for about $20.  Halloween was saved, or so I thought.

Around Wednesday I began to get nervous.  Halloween was just two days away and if the costume didn’t arrive by Thursday, SM would not have anything to wear to school Friday.  I decided to log on to Amazon.com and check the delivery status.  When I logged on…. I found no trace of having ordering the costume. Nothing. Nada. Zippo.  Apparently I’d not hit the final button, processing the order.  I was horrified.  It was Thursday and I had NO COSTUME. I’d failed my son.  He was going to be devastated and I was the one disappointing him.

I of course started freaking out.  Not only was the news going to disappoint my son – who’d been able to do nothing but talk about how excited he was to be a white Power Ranger – but I was going to have to try and find a decent Halloween costume the night before Halloween.  Talk about feeling like I was about to embark on a loosing battle.

I picked up SM after work and told him the news. He surprisingly, was OK. In fact, he said to me, “It’s OK Mom. People make mistakes. We’re family. I love you.”  I melted. It only made me more determined to find him an awesome costume.

We headed out to the stores only to be met with disappointment store after store.  I was about ready to cry. I couldn’t give up. He had to have a costume!  Then it hit me. I had an epiphany.  We didn’t need to buy a traditional costume. We could make our own.  I talked with Sean and we came up with the idea for him to be a football player.  With a new idea in mind (and one that didn’t involve dealing with the crazies in the Halloween isles) we headed to the sporting goods store. As we walked in the door we immediately saw what we were looking for (I swear I heard music…).  There on the shelf was a complete Bengals Football player kit – pants, jersey and helmet – in his size.  I wanted to cry I was so relieved.  SM loved it – more so than the Power Ranger.  Halloween was saved.