Z and her grandmother decided to initiate a family Day of the Dead celebration this year. They prepared for this by setting up an altar for a couple of family members who had died, as well as taking a couple of trips to the local cemetery where many of Jenni's Czech ancestors, including Z's great-grandfather, Marcel Konecny, are interred.

Z knew Marcel as an oblivious toddler but has no memory of him now. On their pre-Day of the Dead cemetery visit, Z and her grandmother collected plastic flowers from every garbage can in the cemetery and decorated Marcel's grave with them. Since these were probably in the trash cans thanks to the groundskeepers, it should not surprise anyone to learn that this gorgeous display had been stripped from our own family's graves by the time we arrived at the cemetery on Sunday for our graveside picnic. They had been replaced by a single PVC pipe stuck in the ground as a helpful aid.


The family I married into has a sincerely felt if somewhat irreverent manner of attending to the memories of their dearly departed. Marcel was a tempestuous patriarch about whom a few chestnuts are routinely shared, channeling much of his legendary vigor in the process. When he died in 2005, an "extra" headstone was supplied by the U.S. military to commemorate Marcel's service in World War II, and was placed a few feet from his actual grave; the unintended consequence of this honor is that the living have not yet decided that having his date of death noted on his actual headstone is worth the engraving expense. It isn't hard to envision local residents of the year 2030 hoping for a fleeting glimpse of the world's oldest man.

Yet this is a family that chooses to spend the day after Halloween picnicking at the family plot, drinking moscato spumanti toasts in his honor, and explaining to a five-year-old why she shouldn't treat granite headstones as playground equipment.


Sometimes being remembered requires a little tolerance.


It beats being forgotten, doesn't it?

If you are like many parents in America, Halloween can be a dreaded time of year for one reason: excessive amounts of sugar! We can recognize that your average trick-or-treater is not going to bring home a "moderate" amount of candy. Rather, most kids will bring home an INSANE amount! According to a Kids' Health website survey of about 1200 kids, "Most kids said they get at least 50 pieces of candy, with over 44% saying they get more than 100 pieces." If this number frightens you (not to mention your dentist), consider donating your candy to help support the troops this year.

There is a non-profit charitable organization called Boatsie’s Boxes whose staff gather and ship supplies and packages to soldiers. They have not been able to send chocolate since May because of the extreme heat temperatures, so this is a perfect time of year to gather your Halloween chocolate, spare your teeth a bit and pass along!

My brother, 1LT Christopher Moskoff, is a Colorado National Guard helicopter pilot. He spent a year at Balad Air Base in Iraq in 2007, and reminded me of the value of sending packages to our soldiers. "It was the highlight of the week to get a care package. We have very few luxuries in Iraq and Afghanistan, but getting a care package was the best reminder that your family and friends still miss, love and support you," he said. You can find the mailing address for sending donations to Boatsie's Boxes here.

If you want to avoid the cost of shipping your candy, look for a local dentist who might be taking donations. We have a dentist in Boulder, Colorado who is accepting donations and PAYING $1 per each pound of donated candy! He will then pay the shipping costs to send the candy to U.S. troops.

For younger kids (under 4), they might not even notice the candy contents had diminished. But for older children, it can be a great learning experience about sharing with others, donating to charities and eating sweets in moderation.

And if you are still looking for another way to disperse your Halloween candy, consider starting an unlimited sweets drawer experiment like we did. (And be sure to let us know how it worked.)

And whatever you choose to do this year, we hope you have a very happy, healthy and safe celebration!