Halloween | Suzanne Earley

My sister’s blog shows pictures of unbearably cute Halloween cuteness, and I’ve got:

partially out of focus pictures of a cute kid, but wearing a last minute Halloween costume that wasn’t really his first choice because it’s not complete: he doesn’t have shin guards. (The part I thought was funny is that is t–shirt and hat are from the Minnesota Twins. He was a TWIN. He didn’t find it is as funny as I did. Especially not when I kept telling people about how funny it was.)

I’ve also got:

a partially out of focus picture of another last minute costume, cobbled together from the Jawa Robe I made several years ago and the mask and gloves from their cousin’s skeleton costume from a previous year. That robe touched the ground the first year it got worn.

Finally, I have:

a partially out of focus picture of Thing 1 and Thing 2 as Pillowcase Heads. Aren’t they cute?

So, Halloween is over, time for the next holiday, right? At least this year, most of the houses they went to gave out good candy. You know: chocolate….

Hey! I got some Halloween decorations out more than 10 days before Halloween! Usually it ends up being the day before Halloween and we decide it really isn’t worth it. I was subjected to some guilt-inducing moments, though. As the boys were putting out our various knick-knacks I heard them say things like “I’m so excited” and “This is my favorite time of the year” — I hope they don’t look back on their childhood as a time of disappointment in a Mom who didn’t have her holiday decorating act together.

What started me on my spurt of holiday cheer was finding this cute banner on a blog on Saturday. (The blog is Allsorts, here’s the direct link the post with the letters for the banner . I need to go back and straighten out the rick-rack so that the letters lay flatter.

We bought some pumpkins the other night, the boys have been asking to carve jack-o-lanterns this year. My husband claims that the boys and I carved pumpkins last year, but I have absolutely no recollection of that. I can’t seem to find any photographs, which seems odd — wouldn’t you think I would take pictures if I had gone to all of the work of carving pumpkins?

I’m not sure when we are going to tackle that. I want to find a recipe for roasting the seeds. My husband says he’s never had roasted pumpkin seeds before. Halloween is not his favorite holiday — I think we could skip right past it and he’d be just fine. The boys though: they talk about Halloween and Halloween costumes all year long. Every week or so someone will say “I’m going to be XYZ this year.” And I will say “That’s nice, honey.” And I’ll know that next week XYZ will be ABC and the week after it will be LMNOP.

And I can guarantee you that that conversation will start on approximately November 1st.

As I was attempting to fall asleep last night I started thinking about Halloween memories from when I was a kid. I don’t remember all of my Halloween costumes — I do remember in 3rd grade I was a Fairy Godmother and had the silliest get-up — it involved a pink tutu and I don’t know what else.

For several years we lived next to a family that became very close friends (back in May my Mom and I went to the wedding blessing for the daughter of the family). The daughter was Princess Leia for several years — it seems like they may have even had to buy her a 2nd (bigger) costume as the years went by. Our Dad’s were in the Navy and often out to sea, but I remember several Halloween’s when they were both home at the same time and the Dad’s were the ones that took the 5 of us kids trick-or-treating. They brought their mugs with them — I think there were several homes in our neighborhood that had hot cider available for the grown-ups. Now that I’m a grown-up, I wonder — do you suppose that cider had anything “extra” in it?

I think my favorite costumes for the boys was the year they were 2: I made (made!) Eeyore and Tigger costumes: