Good. Look at the picture on top.
Brown bags.
Whatever candy you want to throw in.
Labels.
Some ribbon, whatever color you have around.
A hole puncher.
That's about it.
Okay, a printer too. But really, you can go to Kinko's if need be.
There was no actual theme that required finding certain foods or matching colors or play-on words. And it was so liberating. We do a theme every single year - and I thought we'd do one this year as well. It was going to be Mr. Potato Head and we were going to the be the Mr. and Mrs. Potato Heads and the Potato Kids. I ordered brown t-shirts, I was planning on visiting Michael's for felt to make faces on the shirts. The mishloach manot was going to be brown bags decorated as Potato Heads, filled with potato soup, potato salad and a sweet potato muffin.
And then I think I spent too much time thinking about it, procrastinating and contemplating the how and the when this was all going to get done and then all of a sudden, it was the week of Purim and I hadn't done anything at all and panic set in.
A few good friends tried to quash the panic attacks with long phone conversations, but they couldn't talk for too long because they had costume issues of their own.
And then I did something I never did before. I chucked it all, the whole idea, out the window, four days before Purim.
Instead, I pulled the costume boxes out and let the kids pick whatever they wanted. We wound up with one SWAT team guy and three Yankees - two of them girls. Josh went as his usual - in his scrubs and I pulled out the football Jersey I wear on a semi-regular Purim basis.
And shockingly, it was fine. Totally fine. Dare I say it? It was good enough.
That's my new mantra - good enough. I like it.
And instead of my elaborately planned out mishloach manot, we went with brown paper bags filled with whatever nosh I could find at BJ's. We printed funny little colored labels that read:
Queen Esther had a little party.
Party bags for everyone!
Woohoo!
And guess what? Shockingly, it was also fine.
No one looked at me funny.
No one whispered behind my back - look at that ridiculous mishloach manot that she threw together. At least I don't think anyone did, but even if someone did, who cares. I went to bed at a normal time on Saturday night after megillah reading while it seemed like everyone else stayed up till 2am finishing theirs.
Don't get me wrong, I totally see the value and the fun of a themed mishloach manot with matching costumes. I enjoy these creative pursuits and I'm not embarrassed to say that I kind of think I know what I want to do for mishloach manot next year already.
But it just didn't happen this year. And that's okay too.
Maybe next year.
Or maybe not.
And that will be good enough too.
:)
Jen