Halloween Ramblings

image from VisualHunt.com

One of my favorite months of the year is upon us: October. I love the changing leaf colors, the delicious pumpkin flavored everything, and the amazing weather that the month brings. Of course, October also brings one particularly well-known holiday: Halloween. The following are some of my thoughts on the holiday and how my opinion toward the holiday has changed over the years…

1. Costumes I've worn during past Halloweens:• pumpkin outfit (I was 2?)
• Minnie Mouse (5)
• a "pumpkin fairy" (6? It was orange, green, and black with see-through glitter tulle. A cheap dream dress.)
• Belle from Beauty and the Beast (7?)
• a clown (10? I think that was the year I was starting to get sick of dressing up for Halloween. We already had the costume in a closet and I didn't want another cheap one from the Halloween store.)
• In college, I dressed up as Queen Guinevere and had a homemade costume with the heaviest headpiece I have ever worn (it gave me a headache). The (now) husband dressed as Prince Lancelot with chainmail he made himself.

2. The most impressive costumes I've ever seen:• a group of girls running around with inner tubes decorated as a "Baker's half dozen of donuts". :)
• a girl carrying a see-through umbrella decorated with lights and streamers who was pretending to be a jellyfish.
• at an adult party I saw a female dressed as the girl from the Morton salt box (yellow dress, yellow umbrella).

3. Favorite Halloween candy:• snickers
• starbursts
• sour punch straws
• sour patch kids

(I like the fruity, sour candies!)

4. Favorite Halloween movie: Hocus Pocus

5. As a kid, I would sort all of my Halloween candy. Like starbursts in one pile, m&ms in another. Candy I didn't want was tossed or given to my parents/brother. Candy I did want was stuffed into a bag and put in my closet … meant to get me through until Christmas or Easter. (Candy is full of preservatives so it doesn't go bad right? 😉)

6. As an adult, I try to "disappear" on Halloween night by going to the mall or out to eat. The first year my husband and I were married and in our own home, I heard stories of neighborhood kids causing a racket on Halloween night (causing problems and such), and I wanted no part of it. So we locked our doors, turned off our lights, and left for the evening. Call us the Halloween "grinches" if you will. Either way, I enjoyed our "date night" so much, that we've continued to do it every year since. Recently, it's become an excuse to find and try new restaurants. (We always eat at the same ones.)

7. Favorite Halloween song: "The Monster Mash"

8. A Typical Halloween Night As A Kid: My brother and I would come home from school and impatiently wait out the time between 3PM and 5PM. We would eat dinner between 5 and 5:30PM and get dressed up into our costumes. At 6PM, we were out in a nearby neighborhood with more houses than our own. Our parents would follow us in the car as we went from house to house ringing doorbells and hopefully expecting candy. By 9PM, whether or not we had visited all of the houses, we were expected to get in the car and head home. From there, we would sort candy, take baths, and go to bed.

9. Other pre-Halloween things I did growing up –• Haunted Houses: one with the local baptist church (the idea being that this is what you would experience if you didn't accept Jesus "into your heart" and found yourself in Hell), one for a friend's birthday party, and one at my husband's fraternity. It always made me laugh when someone would jump out of the dark and attempt to scare me. 😀
• Speaking of fraternity: their annual Halloween party, which I only went to once or twice. I didn't like fraternity parties, so inevitably I would find myself up in my boyfriend's room doing my own thing. Besides, it really only seemed to be an excuse for college girls to run around half-naked and the guys to get drunk.
• My college had the "Black Cat Dance" which was like a high school prom, but before college students. We all dressed up and went somewhere fancy for mingling, food, and food. (The one year I went the dance was held at the Brave's Field in Atlanta with a fancy "baseball" theme.)
• Halloween Fright Fest at Six Flags Over Georgia theme park is the best in October! I love all of the decorations! Plus, the weather is perfect.• Pumpkin carving.
• Leaf looking in North Georgia. Also visiting apple orchards buying apple butter, fried apple pies, and trying the apples that the orchard sells for free.
• Visiting the fair with friends. Loved the rides, the food, and the experience!
• Church Halloween alternatives: which included getting free candy and playing party games outside.

10. This year
Justin and I have:
• gone leaf looking in North Carolina
• and are going out to eat somewhere new to us for Halloween night (though I haven't decided where).

We will not:
• dress up
• go to a party
• carve pumpkins
• buy Halloween candy (except for giving to the kids I watch).

What are some of your best and worst Halloween memories? Do you like celebrating Halloween or is it a holiday you try to avoid as much as possible? Has the way you celebrated (or not) Halloween over the years changed?