Happy Halloween

Growing up, I followed the rules, including no drinking. I can only imagine the trouble I would have gotten in had I been caught drinking. When I went to college, notorious for its boozing tendencies, I did the only appropriate thing: drank and did not tell my parents about it. I'm pretty sure that it's an unwritten rule that you let that information go unspoken.

My sibling, Alison, however, just might be a lush. Hell, even my dad says so. Not only did she go to college and drink a lot, but she broke the cardinal rule: She was open with my parents about it.

Make no mistake, Alison is still underage. She should not be ordering alcoholic beverages at a restaurant while eating with my family. But somewhere along the way, my parents decided that was okay, too.

I did not realize the extent to which my parents were enablers until this weekend, though. When my parents visited Alison recently, she requested assistance on her Halloween costume. Her and the "girlsssss" had decided to each dress up as alcoholic beverages. Rather than telling Alison to take it easy on her liver, my mom makes her a terrific costume as a bottle of Malibu rum. She flat out does most of it for Alison. Who knows what Alison was doing, she was probably passed out somewhere. Realizing the costume was missing something, my dad had my mom make a bottle cap hat as an accessory, making the transformation of my sibling into an alcoholic product a regular family affair.

It's a wonder I made it out of my household without a drinking problem.

Happy Halloween!