My mom made me and my siblings some spectacular Halloween costumes: Ghostbusters, Marie Antoinette, Pippi Longstocking, fairy godmother with tinfoil crown. There were several last-minute Punky Brewster years too, but the one thing I never remember doing was buying a costume. Some years I wanted to choose one of the cheap, chintzy suits we saw at the drug store--the ones with misaligned dye jobs and seams that would start to unravel before they even got to the register. The ones that would probably burst into flame if scooted across the carpet. My mom turned up her nose at those. Good for her.
Ally has thwarted my homemade plans a couple of times by choosing her costume just days or minutes before the big night. This year she picked Princess Leia after seeing Star Wars for the first time. I just had a baby and I'm not getting in the sewing saddle just yet, so it was off to the costume shop. Sold out. I told Bim it would be expensive to order it with such short notice and asked him what he thought. As if I didn't already know he'd pay triple whatever they asked.
