He points to the neighbors' decorations, brightly lit up across the street, unmistakable from our naked windows -- five of them of them across our living room -- and pitches his frustration at my ears' pain threshold: YES IT IS HALLOWEEN TIME, LOOOOOOOOOK. IT IS IT IS IT IS. IT'S HALLOWEEN. I want to go get CANDY. NOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWW!
This is our first Halloween post autism diagnosis, and our first Halloween gfcf. Now, before I explain to you what a giant pain I find this in my giant rear end, let me tell you my little back story.
I love holidays. Love em. You never saw a Jewish girl get Christmasy like I do. Oh, I don't go over the top with decorations or anything, I just get all drunk on symbolism and hungover on high stakes emotional expectation. Even I can't believe how quickly I turn from cynical pessimist into a drippy glop of mush shelling out $30 for every ugly ornament that says, "Baby's First Christmas" or "2007: Our New Home" and weeping over Passover stories on NPR.
So you're wondering if you stumbled on to the wrong blog? Revising your whole mental picture of Rooster's mom?
Even farther back in the back story: My childhood sucked. My dad got the very literal kind of drunk every holiday eve and puked all over symbolism. Then he fled the country and my mom worked every holiday eve, and spent every Christmas morning refusing to accept my thanks for the gifts she gave me, insisting on apologizing nonstop for not being able to buy me expensive clothes and jewelry I never wanted in the first place. Then, she met another drunk...
When I left for college, I EMBRACED celebration. I considered myself all grown up and in charge of my own holidays, and I. Did. Them. Up. Right. I remember a particular Halloween dorm party where I met a cute cyclist named.... but wait. I digress.
I couldn't wait to have a family of my own with HOLIDAYS. I do not discriminate about holidays or worry about such nonsense as whether or not they match my religion or whatever: my rule says that if food is involved, I will celebrate. Ramadan, not so much. Chinese New Year? Now you're talking.
And now, in the face of the holiday season, I feel a little slack in the ho ho ho, if you know what I'm saying. I'm concerned how my family's EPIC sweet potatoes will turn out without the essential stick of butter this Thanksgiving. And Halloween? It's looking pretty scary.
So this is what I did. I got online and ordered a gajillion dollars worth of gfcf candy, which got me about 14 servings, and then paid double for shipping. I have stuffed these sugary gems into environment-killing baggies, and tomorrow I will add to these baggies a note to our neighbors. It will beg them to give an atypical family a break. It will request that, when my kids say "Trick or Treat", they will hand them these organic gummy whatevers instead of the good stuff they hand out to the NT masses. Wednesday after my husband comes home, I will sneak out and reverse trick or treat down our little street, leaving these baggies at the houses with the inflatable ghosts and the static cling bats where I feel most likely to catch a break.
It's a risky plan, and I doubt it will work. But I have to at least try. It's that, or go all bah humbug, and give up my Fa la la la las. Maybe by the time we're looking for gfcf fruitcake and gelt, I'll raise the white flag, but for now, I'm setting out to get our whole family drunk on all-natural gluten-free casein-free soy-free gummi bears and good times.
Wish me luck.
Is it Halloween yet?
2 comments:
Oh no!! Good luck. I hope you have cooperative neighbors. The candy thing really does get out of hand, doesn't it? For everyone. Too. Much. Sugar.
I went trick or treating with my friend M who has her son on gf/cf. She had a list of things that her son could eat, and kept him on the straight & narrow by helping him choose. Of course, I think the personality of the rooster is about as different as her son as he can get - he's mostly nonverbal & very mellow so he didn't have a problem with his mom poking around in his candy bucket. I give you major kudos for the reverse trick or treating method. You sure love that rooster of yours. :)
But I want to say that the first holiday post dx is always very tough - and especially - ESPECIALLY!! - if you're trying to limit the very items that are currency for that holiday, you know?
For the sweet potatoes - I had a vegetarian brother, so we got very used to making one bowl of stuffing with sausage, and one without. My thought: I'd be pissed off (read: resentful) if I couldn't have the sweet potatoes *exactly* as I wanted them at the holidays, so try making one bowl of sweet potatoes w/o butter for the rooster, and have one WITH butter for the rest of you (or just you) - keep it on the down low, and you should be fine. You have had to make so many adjustments this past year, and the fact that you're feeling like you have to alter the holidays probably throws you back to a not very nice mental space. Thank you for the back story - it helped me to understand you much better.
love & hugs, R
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