Reformation Day

I am coming more and more to an acceptance of the fact that my family is terminally weird. As in, absolutely bonkers in the best sense of the term. We do strange things like fly foreign flags in the front of our house, own more books that we do movies, read said books, own a bucket full of swords and other pointy objects, discuss history, politics, literature, and random trivia at the supper table, have a private vocabulary of words coined over the years by various family members, and enjoy a range of hobbies from making chain mail to writing full blown novels. One of the more visible oddities of my family is that we love to dress up given half an excuse. Ever since we were little, pretty much any occasion was made better by the addition of interesting costuming and accessories. Cloaks are fully functional garments worn frequently by most members of my family, and it wouldn’t be at all surprising to find one of us randomly deciding to wear an interesting hat, boots, or pair of gauntlets around all day.

Halloween, or Reformation Day as it has become in our family, is the one day a year when people don’t give us puzzled glances, comments, and outright stares of surprise that people over 8 still enjoy dressing up. We have a long history of creative costuming choices that range from historical, to literary, to classic. Ninjas, to colors, to Jacobites—it’s been done! We scorn scary, gross, or ghoulish costumes, instead choosing the unorthodox and quirky. It’s occasions like that, full of memories, that I miss my siblings most. What I wouldn’t give to have been home to join in the fun! Oh well—some day I’ll get a chance to express my ‘wild’ side again!