When did Halloween start to require as much effort as Christmas? Actually, now that I think about it, Halloween is a bit more daunting than Christmas at my house since I take full advantage of Advent to think about the season, celebrate and prepare. And, of course, being the Type A planner that I am, I've had Christmas gifts and crafts ready and waiting since May.

But Halloween sneaks up on me and seems to require almost as much effort and planning with the benefit of neither an advent-type season nor socially-sanctioned months-in-advance planning. Getting the kids' costumes ready, the treats baked, pumpkins decorated, the crafts completed, the parties attended and house festive has required the efforts of two parents and one au pair and, lemme tell ya, we've not done everything that we'd been asked to do - AND, the actual trick-or-treating (once upon a time the only Halloween event worth talking about) hasn't even happened yet. Just this morning I told the Director of Entropy Girl's preschool that I had to take a Halloween Hiatus from the major fundraising project on which I am working and that my life is now divided into "before Halloween" and "after Halloween". This, to me, is an alarming state of affairs.

I am more than a little concerned about the escalation of Halloween festivities. I mean, Brainiac and I knew we wanted to give our kids the full Childhood Magic Package™, but the parameters of that goal are expanding all the time. Must every single moment be magical? Can we not, say, put on a pirate suit for one evening, collect a little candy, carve a pumpkin, maybe bob for an apple and call it a day? Why am I - and several parents of my acquaintance - planning for several costumes per child so that they (the kids and the costumes) make it through the fortnight of Halloween merrymaking? One night of magic and wonder is no longer enough, apparently - at least where All Souls are concerned.

So I'm about to pop (another) cranberry orange mini-muffin into my mouth (leftover from Entropy Girl's Sunday School party) to fortify me for today's round of events: costume parades and parties for both children, a visit to my mother-in-law in the hospital, a Halloween party set-up this evening and trying to finish the remaining work on one costume since Entropy girl's other two have not survived the week's round of pumpkin painting and cookie decorating. It's not so much the Souls I'm thinking about as the veil between the world thins tomorrow night, but rather whether my own soul can make it through.