I am back again this October with another installment in the popular series called "My Sister is a Halloween Costume Ninja". (Part One is here.) That's my sister in the photo above, dressed as Morticia Addams, surrounded by Cousin It, Lurch, her darling husband Gomez, and Wednesday.

This is a family tradition. Her kids tolerate it. As their prefrontal cortexes form, they are slowly coming to realize that their mother is an artistic genius masquerading as an Iowa housewife who makes a perfectly fine egg casserole. It only took them ten years. Kids!

I asked my sister why she continues to put forth the effort to conceive of a group costume, create five of them, and then coax her teenage offspring into their outfits, not to mention her husband who feigns detachment until the last second when he swoops in, dons his costume, and effortlessly transforms into whatever handsome beefcake character he is expected to portray. (Yes, that was a run-on sentence. If you think that it was long and difficult to read, imagine sewing that Cousin It costume. A metaphor!)

My sister does it for the memories.

Also, perhaps she knows that teens who are expected to go all-in on family traditions, even quirky weird unusual ones, are teens who become more comfortable in their own skin.

So, like all good moms, she is sneaking in a life lesson.

For a peek at her oeuvres from previous years, click here. The last one is a doozie.

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