Best Halloween Ever

Let me tell you, Halloween is usually not my thing. I’m the first to roll my eyes at the endless costume ads, pumpkin spice this-and-that, and people decorating their yards like it’s a gothic amusement park. But this Halloween? This Halloween was perfect.

I spent the night chilling with my 5-year-old, who’s absolutely obsessed with Monster High. It’s this world of teenage monsters who walk around school looking flawless, like they were carved straight out of a goth kid’s notebook. We binged that series like it was our job, snuggled up with our cozy blankets, and yes, I totally let her stay up later than usual. I know, parenting “rules” and all that, but come on—it’s Halloween. We’re embracing the night!

Now, here’s the kicker: instead of making some fancy Halloween dinner like Pinterest keeps harassing me to do every year, I did what any self-respecting, slightly tired, way-too-busy mom would do. I ordered us Jack in the Box. Nothing like a greasy, carb-loaded bag of fried goodness to make a Halloween night perfect. My 5-year-old’s eyes lit up like she just saw a unicorn, and I was living my best life with curly fries and a milkshake, thinking, “Why don’t we do this every year?”

To top it off, we played Avatar World together. For those of you who don’t know, Avatar World is kind of like the ultimate dress-up game. We created these ridiculous avatars, and she was absolutely living her best life while I was out here trying to figure out why my character kept randomly changing outfits. It was peaceful, it was silly, and it was, shockingly, the best Halloween I’ve ever had.

My 14-year-old and 16-year-old had plans of their own, out with their friends, probably having some wild, rebellious fun of their own (or, knowing them, just a lot of candy hunting and TikTok’ing in costumes they probably wouldn’t let me see before they left the house). I trust them, so I got to relax, knowing they’d be fine and back with stories to share in the morning.

And you know what? This whole thing was downright peaceful. No kids fighting over the last mini Snickers. No sugar-fueled meltdowns or me panicking because one of them lost their costume accessory in a pile of wrappers. Just me, my youngest daughter, Monster High, and some deliciously greasy fast food that I had zero guilt about. This was Halloween done right.

So there you have it: my unexpectedly amazing Halloween. Everyone had a blast, no one got hurt, and I didn’t have to deal with a single one of those annoying pumpkin-flavored atrocities.