Happy Halloween!

This is a re-post from last year.  Happy Halloween 2010!

Four days until Halloween— I love the fall and love to celebrate Halloween!  Unfortunately Halloween through the years has became negative for some people, but not for me.  I do not have any pictures of me dressed up for Halloween.  When I was young my family did not take many pictures.  The only memories I have are the limited ones in my head.  I wish I had more but life was different in the 60’s.  We, of course, were not as technologically absorbed as we are now.  The technology wasn’t as readily available to families at a reasonable price.  In my life now I have multiple digital cameras and computers and any other cool gadgets I can get my hands on.  Creating visual memories now is so much easier, which will be wonderful for those of you that are living young today.

But back to Halloween.  I remember my mom loved holidays.  She liked to decorate our porch for trick or treaters.  One year I remember an old trunk put on the porch.  Inside was a monster type of creature and spider webs.  It was awesome even though the picture is a bit blurred in my mind.  My most favorite costume was walking around with my girlfriend as a pair of dice.  I think my sister Deb might have painted the dice since she was such an artist.  The costume was a bit cumbersome.  We were afraid some boys would mischievously throw a firecracker in our box but we felt very clever.  

When I was a kid we went out trick or treating without parents following along.  That changed for my own children and even with adults attending a group of trick or treaters there were children who had their bags stolen.  I loved coming up with costumes when my children were young.  My son always wanted to be the latest super hero.  My most ambitious costume was a ninja turtle, Raphael.  Gosh for someone like me who is not a seamstress this costume took a long time to make!  My daughter was easier and usually had the witch or princess thing going on.  The most elaborate costumes we would see when my kids were little came from a pattern and home sewing machine.  Moms put lots of love and time into their little ones costumes. 

I have always decorated my homes at Halloween, inside and out.  Each year I love scouring the stores for new items to add to my collection.  One year I was able to persuade a local store to let me have the Energizer (I think this is right) cardboard haunted house.  It broke down each year but it was pretty cool to have sit outside on Halloween night.  I even once used it at the school Fall Festival.  I scrunched down inside the house and dressed like a witch giving candy to the trick or treaters at the festival.

 

 

My friends would like me to come to their home and hand out candy Halloween night.  They liked hearing my witches voice and cackle as the children left with their treats.  I am not one of those homes in the neighborhood that add every new balloon decoration that comes out each year.  My home has small touches of Halloween fright.  Like now I have my 6 foot spider near the door.  It is sad that I have never lived in a home that had many trick or treaters come.  They like to go where they can get the most loot the fastest.  This has been disappointing through the years but that doesn’t stop my love or me from celebrating Halloween.  Some of the must things to do at this time of the year: find cool haunted houses and I have been through many, and drive around looking at other decorations.  I also like to go to malls where costumes of treaters abound in a safe environment.

Four more days, I’ll be a witch and my hubby a wizard.  If you listen carefully maybe you’ll hear my cackle….