Some people know how to enjoy themselves.

One such person is my neighbor Stacey.

She is a mom of three.  Stacey says her motto is “’never grow up’!” and that “Peter Pan is my role model.”

She is a very creative person who enjoys acting, scrapbooking, creating, and counted cross stitch.

Gru, Minions and Despicable Me – comes to the Jersey Suburbs (2014).

Stacey and her family have utilized that creativity as part of the celebration of the Jewish Holiday of Purim. Check out her story below.

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Purim has always been my favorite Jewish holiday.

It tells of the near destruction of the Jewish people as decreed by Haman, the advisor to the king of Persia, Ahashuerus. However, newly crowned Queen Esther, is secretly a Jew. Due to her courage, she saves the Jews from evil Haman’s decree.

We celebrate Purim by giving extra charity, going to synagogue to hear the retelling of the story (and getting to shake noise makers whenever we hear Haman’s name), putting on costumes, giving and getting baskets of food, giving charity to the poor, and having a Purim feast.

I like everything about Purim.

As a kid, the Purim story was fun to hear. During my teenage years, I loved having one day a year where I got to see all my loved ones- friends and family.  And now as a mom of three boys, it is the perfect bonding time for my family.

The holiday gives us license to regress a bit and be a kid. My boys tell my husband and I that we neither look nor act our age (they say this as a compliment) and on Purim we get to let the child within us, out!

How do we do this? We take our dress up SERIOUSLY. In fact, my boys start thinking about our theme a year in advance!

It began when my eldest, was just 18 months, and we already had a lion costume. At the last minute I ran into a store and bought a teenager size Dorothy costume to ‘match’ my baby. I begged my husband to dress up but he adamantly refused. The night of Purim, as we were getting ready to go to sleep, he relented. “Fine, I’ll dress up.”

At the last minute, I scrambled and found old maternity size overalls, and an old broom. We managed to pull together a scarecrow costume which he wore for our Purim day. And so the tradition began.

Through the years we continued dressing up as a family, usually sticking with Disney themes. I always got ‘stuck’ with the girl role; my husband, with the ‘villain’ role.  And my boys continue to up the ante.

Toy Story 2 Purim 2012- Woody, Buzz, Jesse, Zurg and Jesse

Occasionally, I got off easy- store bought costumes- like when we were all the Incredibles – but usually my boys have more complicated requests…. like when we turned our teenager into a plastic army man from Toy Story (he needed help getting out of those duck taped pants— good thing we did a dress rehearsal or the kid would not have been able to move, let alone breathe!).

Then there was the year that I created a magic carpet to go for as part of an Aladdin costume for my then 5-year-old. I had an old tv tray- used posters and markers and drew a replica of the magic carpet that Disney created and then hung blue streamers from the table to serve as the ‘sky’ (and hide the table legs). However, a rinky dink tv table could barely hold a cup of juice let alone the weight of my son and Aladdin ‘needed’ to be flying on that carpet, so I proceeded to fill a pair of white pants with stuffing and glued them down on to the ‘carpet.’

Disney’s Aladdin- Purim 2006- Aladdin, Jafar, Jasmine and the Genie

As you can imagine, getting the costumes ready is occasionally stressful, but I wouldn’t change it for the world!

Disney’s Monsters INC Purim 2013- Randall, Sulley, Mike Wazowski, Boo, CDA (child detection agency)

Dressing up as one theme and then trying to squish into our mid-size car fills my family and me with laughter. It gives us pictures and memories that will last a lifetime.

Yes, that’s Purim! What’s not to like?

Disney’s Beauty & the beast- Purim 2011- Belle, the Beast, Chip, Cogsworth and Lumiere