To give my mom credit, she had her traditional cute decorations, homemade pumpkins made out of orange construction paper taped in every window in the house. Costumes were not as big of a priority. My mom had a huge "dress up" basket in the basement of costumes she made for school plays, church productions, or Madrigal concerts. The five of us kids would rotate each year wearing a clown/jester costume, deer, cowboy/girl, 50's girls, punk rock star, and dracula. I have fond memories stuffing my costume in my backpack on Halloween so I could have it ready for the annual Hannah Holbrook school parade. Toward the end of the school day we slipped into our costumes and marched in and out of classes showing off our duds to visitors who came to watch.
After school we would walk home in our costumes and then sit and wait and count down the time we would go out with our pillow cases and trick or treat around the neighborhood. If you took candy out of the equation, I really did not enjoy trick or treating. It was typically freezing, raining, or snowing. You had to wear your coat over the costume (doesn't that defeat the purpose?) and there were always houses that enjoyed scaring the bajeezes out of children. Why?? I usually went with my younger sister Lynette. When we would approach a dark home with haunting music, she would remind me it was all fake and then squeal and giggle when an unsuspecting stranger would jump, scream, or lower a stuffed sheet (i.e. ghost) off their balcony. To this day I hate haunted houses, horror movies, and scary books.
Fast forward to 2011. Unfortunately, BOTH Mike and I are not big fans of Halloween or anything related to it. When my oldest sister, Cyd lived close by we would party every year because my oldest niece was born on Halloween. They had awesome parties, decorations, games, food. Unfortunately, my children were non existent or too young to remember. Once they moved away, it went downhill from there.
Poor, unfortunate children.
Costumes? I typically buy costumes the year before on clearance. Last year Lauren found a witch costume she loved (thank goodness). It was either that or a ninja costume.
Decorations? Don't ask. Let's just say my kid's dropped hints like, "A pumpkin would look nice on the front porch".
Trick of Treating? Adam and Megan have reached the, "You are too old to go trick of treating". In our home, sixth grade is the official cut off day. This year I didn't hear too many grumblings from Megan who was invited to go (really?? 9th graders??) but stayed home and manned the door. Adam on the other hand has been dropping hints since the first of October. This is my child who has not worn a costume and "been himself" for Halloween for the past 5 years. Who typically goes to 3 or 4 doors and says, "I'm done". Now that he's reached his "you can't go" deadline, he decides Halloween is fun and something he wants to do. With a little compromise, he invited a good friend up and they hung out at the "cool" neighbors home who splurges on hotdogs, hot chocolate, and movies in their yard and snuck away for an hours to knock on some doors. Does that count for pre-missionary work? Knocking on doors? Rationalization, I know.
Speaking of knocking on doors. We had some pre-teens knocking on our door at 9:45 p.m. What the heck? It's a school night punks. Mike was really nice and told me to chill. I asked him if he gave them the raisin oatmeal granola bars I had set aside for those that looked 16 and older. He didn't respond.
Halloween Resolution.
I am going knock my kid's socks off and go waaaaay overboard. Make up for lame-o Halloween memories. Killer party, haunted house, homemade costumes, regular sized candy bars for the neighbor kids.
Slap, slap. Marla, let's be real. After writing all that, it's not gonna happen. Baby steps. Next year, party and a few decorations may suffice and bring my "mom status" up from lame to okay. Disclaimer: Whatever is written in a blog does not count as a promise.
Onto what really matters. Here's 2011 Pictures of my awesome kids and sexy husband (mullet and all).
