My sister recently told me a story about her Halloween costume. When she was younger, her frightening costume consisted of one character for Halloween two years in a row. It was neither the ubiquitous princess cosutme get up, nor the witch costume, and alter-ego of a what a little girl typically wants to be on Halloween to go trick or treating in.

Instead she chose to be Darth Vader, a movie character costume from Star Wars. I think this is quite an admirable choice for a two year run. It is easy to pick the easy pirate, goblin, or otherwise standard costume. While all of her classmates were busy being girly, she decided to try and destroy the world with her death star. Halloween is the one time where we get to be whoever we want, without shame or ridicule (or at least that is the holiday's best intention). As we grow, some of us lose that desire to step outside of our daily routine, either because we have kids to worry about, want to sort out the candy, or just plain don't care about Halloween.

I for one think that is a shame. Rather than shy away from my smaller roots, I embrace them, wanting to be more and more a character every Halloween. A few years back I took the plunge and decided to be a living reincarnation of tigger with a life-size costume. Most of the night I was in character. This year for Halloween I hope to be the same, but take the adult costume even farther and truly become the character I portray. As for my sister, she always dresses her dog up, in funny Halloween costumes, and this year her 4 month old daughter will be a pea in a pod, literally. Baby costumes do not need much to be both cute and funny.

If I could be just one thing this Halloween I choose the Banana Costume.