I have a treat for you today, a rich buffet of Halloween goodness. My sister and her family dress up together, as a fivesome, every Halloween. Anyone who has conceived of, organized, and executed a group costume knows the difficulty involved. Committing to this endeavor, year after year, even as her children grow into obstinate teens, even when her inner voice begs for a break to just sit out a year for land's sake, and watch that other modern family celebrate Halloween on TV, shows a strength of mind that I am proud to see in my little sis. I must publicly say how much I admire her achievement. And now you can too! 

The year they went as The Incredibles (above) is so apropos given their real life superhero status as a family. Can you see the incredibly tiny doll hands on one niece, the incredibly long nose on my nephew,  and the incredibly large derrière on my other niece? And can you believe my sister's incredibly big ... eyes! And my brother-in-law's incredibly manly... thighs? Together they are rescuing us from mendacity. 

Their homage to The Shining (above) is excellent and gives me the creeps just thinking about the "hallway girls" in their blue dresses. My sister's attention to detail just shines -- those tricycle bars! She did get frustrated by how many teens did not catch on because they hadn't seen the 1980 film. Bad bad parenting to let your child enter the teen years without a good Stanley Kubrick oeuvre under their belt. 

This photo was taken the year she created a spook house in her garage. Its theme was something like Rise of the Planet of the Apes meets The Hunger Games. I don't know. Kids got scared. The ape in the middle in the white medical coat is our father. Next to him kneeling with her face dirtied is our mother. You can see where we inherited the Halloween-frenzy gene.

In the photo above, my sister's friends have finally clued in to her genius at group costumes and they all join forces as the cast of the popular series Orange is the New Black. My sis, front row far left, took on the glamorous role of Tiffany "Pennsatucky" Doggett, complete with meth head rotted teeth. WHICH BECAME STUCK IN HER MOUTH! She tried prying out the fake teeth, she tried relaxing her toothy grip, she tried hot water rinses to loosen them but nothing worked. If you watch the show, you know that the teeth are practically a stand-alone character on their own. So when my sister ended up in the dental chair after her party, where her dentist husband resorted to the drill to remove the fake teeth, she is simply following the plot lines already set out by the show's writers. Now that is dedication and craft. Like I said, I'm a fan.