Halloween costumes Granada style

Halloween is a wonderful time of year, and like most Americans, I can still remember my childhood days collecting goodies and wearing cool costumes. In Granada, it has been a learning curve navigating different shops trying to couple items together to make a costume for Sierra. However, we recently got a great lead on renting a costume for Zoe from a nearby funeral parlor. NO JOKE a real, currently operating, full selection of caskets, smells like moth balls, funeral parlor.
   We walked into their front salon, passed by some smiling family members slowly rocking their chairs back and forth. Zoe said, "There's probably going to be Zombies here and eat me up, so these are my last words...good bye." We stuck together and entered what could be best described as their dining room which was stuffed wall to wall with all variety of costumes. In plain view, was the matriarch of the house, prepping dinner in the kitchen only 15 feet away from us. In true Nicaraguan fashion, the family business is run out of the family home. While the girls were looking at costume ideas for Zoe, I poked around the funeral parlor to see if anyone was laying around, if you know what I mean.
   While we were there having fun, shopping for Zoe's costume, a woman walked in to make another installment payment on a casket for a buried family member. She looked sad and I can only imagine how expensive it must be, relative to her wages, to bury a loved one. Who knows what happens in Nicaragua if you stop payment on a casket? Do they dig up the casket, ditch the body, spray Lysol in the box and call it good? There are so still many things we don't yet understand about the customs and norms here but I can assure you, this is one of them I can wait a long time to find out about.
   Zoe finally honed in on a cute witch costume, however she didn't want to try the costume on in the funeral parlor bathroom. Go figure, right? I wonder how my daughters are going to remember Halloween when they are older? Will their memory of Halloween be enhanced by the smells of a grandma sauteing onions in the background mixing ever so delicately with the smells of embalming fluid, musty caskets, and who knows what else that funky odor wafting in the air was? Only time will tell, but in the meantime this is one hell of a cool story that still makes us chuckle when we think of Halloween costumes, Granada style. Before we left the funeral parlor, I asked Sierra if she would hop into a casket so I could take a picture of her and she looked at me and asked, "What if it closes on me?" She then quickly followed up by asserting, "Daddy it ain't gonna happen." and then we giggled and walked out.

Well stocked supply of costumes right when we needed it most.

Spooky renderings of Jesus on the wall.

Even grandma came out of the kitchen to help customers (pictured in back with apron)

Zoe looked spooked showing her costume in front of all the caskets. But were they empty? There's only one way to find out :) 

Well lit home made shopping easier.

The Place to know when you gotta go.

A full selection of caskets for all levels of love. Caskets Ranged from, "Finally that SOB kicked the bucket" wooden boxes to "OMG it should have been me" gold leaf  luxury models. Oddly enough, I still haven't seen a casket with a wallet in it yet.  

The family hearse, still in operation and makes regular calls for pick ups and deliveries.