We’ve been rather overloaded with events and activities lately. It seems as if one of Enid’s classmates has a birthday party at least once a week. Strange, since there are only about 10 kids in her class! The parties are generally in the afternoon while I’m at work, so I’m excused from them. But they keep Robin and Enid pretty busy. And this week we got a triple-whammy: Enid’s birthday on Monday, Halloween yesterday, and Day of the Dead tomorrow. For Enid’s birthday we got off fairly light so far. The tradition at her school is that the birthday child’s parents come to the class for about half an hour as “guest teachers”. So we went over there Monday morning and I read some stories and sang some songs with the kids, and Robin brought them some cupcakes she baked. It made for a short day at work for me, but it was kind of fun.

The real birthday event is still ahead of us though, when we have her party at Parque Chipinque on Saturday. The preparations for that have been occupying a lot of time lately (mostly Robin’s, admittedly). Plus we’ve been working on an application for Hanahou’oli, a private school that we’d like to get Enid into next year. That’s important enough to us that we’ve been spending quite a bit of time on it. So much time in fact that we pretty much blew of Halloween entirely. I was really hoping to at least carve a Jackolantern with Enid, but it never came to pass. Enid and Robin did go to a Halloween party (again it started too early for me to attend) the night before Halloween, but I guess they never had time to put a costume together for Enid. Which also meant that she didn’t have one the next day when – surprise! – all of the teachers and students at her school showed up in costume. I think Enid was the only kid that came to school in her uniform on Halloween. I don’t think she minded, but I was a bit embarrassed. I mean it’s an American holiday after all.

But you’d be surprised how big of a deal Halloween is here. I’m told that up until several years ago it was unheard of to celebrate Halloween in Mexico, but now it’s really catching on, at least in Monterrey. I think it’s probably especially popular in Del Valle where the people have plenty of money to blow and seem driven to emulate the American lifestyle wherever possible. There were tons of kids and teenagers out trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, or just roaming the streets in costume chanting “Halloween! Halloween!” Nobody actually came to our door, but our apartment is sort-of in back and upstairs, so it’s a bit out of sight. I didn’t mind. I was tired by the time we got Enid to bed, and I have mixed feelings about Mexicans celebrating Halloween anyway. It seems kind of like cultural pollution to me. Besides I hate all the landfill fodder (plastic pumpkins, cheap costumes, etc.) that fills the stores around Halloween, no matter whether it’s here or in the US. I’ll be glad to see all of that gone, even if it’s just to make room for all the Christmas crap (which has already begun to fill the store shelves here).

So, no Halloween this year, but I did manage to put together a little Day of the Dead altar for my mom here in the apartment. I enlisted Enid’s help, since she’s always up for an arts and crafts project. They have an altar set up at her school and they’ve explained Day of the Dead in class, so I figured “when in Rome…” Plus she’s getting to the age where she seems ready to benefit from discussion of lost loved ones, and ways that people deal with that. It’s also nice for me to have an excuse to talk to Enid about my mother, share a few stories about her, etc. She’s never going to know my mother or have any real understanding of who she was, but I want her to at least know something about her. Actually I felt rather guilty when I had to ask my father to send me photos of my mom for the altar. Not so much because I didn’t have any here- one could be excused for not bringing family photos on a trip like this- but because I realized I didn’t have even a single picture of her at home in Hawaii. I guess I’m not setting a very good example for Enid about how to esteem and honor one’s parents. Better change that before it catches up with me!

So, Day of the Dead is tomorrow, and we’ll finishing decorating the altar. Then Saturday is the big party. Did I mention that in addition to being a lot of work the party is costing us a small fortune? Trying to fit in with the Mexican upper class is expensive. It should be a fun party though, and Enid’s excited about it. But I think Robin and I will both feel a lot more relaxed when it’s over with, and when we’ve gotten the Hanahou’oli application mailed off.

Other than all the busyness, things have been good. On Sunday I took Enid over to the coffee shop for a bagel with cream cheese and then we rode the bus over to Cerro del Obispado and walked up to the top of the hill where the giant flag is. The weather has cooled down enough that it wasn’t too bad up there, even at mid-day. It was fun to spend some quality time alone with Enid, just her and me. I used to take her out every Saturday back in Hawaii to give Robin a break, but we fell out of the habit when we were living in Yountville. So I’m hoping to get back into that.