Day of the Dead

Today is Dia de los Muertos, the day where some Hispanic people honor those who have passed. I have been wanting to start celebrating this with my children- I think it’s an extraordinarily healthy way that one of the many cultures that are part of my background treats death. The dead are never really gone, and you can spend the day with them.

We live near a cemetery. Every day when I drive by I either see a funeral, or I see a family sitting at a graveside. Today, the cemetery was a little brighter than usual- you could spot the graves decorated with marigolds and other items (food, drink).

We’re going to build an altar next year. I meant to build one for this year, but I lost track of time. So… next year. We did have a long talk about what the holiday means, and I bought some marigolds. So that’s something, I suppose.

I am wearing my sugar skull pirate shirt. It sums up who I am, don’t you think?

Also, TheBoy showed up this morning with a soy chai latte for me- while I admit that I’m not quite ready to jump into Christmas planning, the holiday cups do make me happy. Hence the webcam picture.

Halloween was lovely, we had a great time (the Little Kidlet seems to prefer giving out candy to trick-or-treating). Someone that the Oldest Kidlet knows came to our house, though I have no idea who. “Trick or treat! Oh, hi [OK]’s mom!” And he vanished before I could ask who it was dressed as Luigi! It was a little surreal to say the least.

The only downside was the nerds seemed to be the “cool” costume (aside from the plethora of Marios). As a nerd who was picked on and had friends who got it worse from bullies… I hate nerd costumes. It isn’t a fantasy you’re living out- it’s a costume you wear because it’s “funny.” Only you’re making fun of people that are already pegged in school as being unpopular. So if you’re a parent, I urge you to rethink letting the your kids dress as a nerd. It isn’t just a harmless joke for a night. It’s reinforcing stereotypes that perpetuate bullying. (Find other ways to celebrate nerds!)

If you missed it, this week I blogged about the Kohl’s ads for the Narciso Rodriguez collection. It features two extremely thin models and actually makes the clothes look bad. Take a peek at the post if you haven’t, and please… let Kohl’s know that you think it’s irresponsible to air an ad that promotes unhealthy ideals of beauty- because there’s no way that either of those women are healthy.