Halloween Week is here!! Wowza... I know they always say that time flies by the older we get, but I never thought it would actually become true. I can't really complain though, we've had a wonderful fall... and we love Halloween week!
Being the daughter of a first-grade teacher, my Mother {and Father} always made sure Halloween was the best! Our costumes were always home-made, {or thrown together from what we had at home, as we got older} creative, and my mom always let us help make them! I remember several years spent as a lady bug, a clown costume that my mom made from my favorite care bear heart fabric, a couple years as an M&M, a scarecrow, a which, a cat... and my first halloween costume, a baby lamb.
When I was 3, we built a house in Smithfield - a HUGE neighborhood that was filled with kids.... no kidding, we had 1000's of trick-or-treaters every year. It was awesome! It's become a tradition that we always had hot dogs and chili {I am sure because it was easy to feed the 3 dozen kids we drug over throughout the night}, we always made caramel apples, popcorn hands with candy corn nails, and other home-made sweets like cupcakes and cookies. My grandparents always came over... and most years, the cousins did too! It was a big ol' party.... and a week-night usually, which made it super cool for us.
After many trips out trick-or-treating, we came home with pillowcases full of candy... and spent all night organizing our chocolate bars and our sweets... bartering with each other to get what we wanted... always Skittles for me! We had other traditions... Our favorite book was The Candy Witch. We read it every night for weeks. The week before Halloween, we always had a Pumpkin Carving with Dad... we only carved one pumpkin, but each of us got to help with scraping and cutting and roasting the seeds. My mom and I always put together "special treat bags" for the kids she had taught and our neighborhood friends... we ordered spiders and pencils and little games from Oriental Trading. Then we spent hours stuffing them all into bags and labeling them with kids names. And if you were really special, Mom would invite you in for your very-own candy apple or cupcake.
Thanks for always making Halloween so much fun, Mom & Dad!!
I will never forget our Freshman year of college when Lynsey and I went to four Halloween parties four nights in a row - wearing the same devil and cave-woman costumes. Once Lynsey locked herself out of her car getting gas - in her full devil outfit by herself... it was great. :) {Sorry, Lyns} I'll also always remember Halloween our Senior year when Lynsey and Neal had their "first date" of sorts.... or more or less, a late night trip to Supper Club! Little did we know that 8 years later they would be expecting a little girl.
Halloween also has a special memory for J and I - it was our first date! We met 6 years ago this past weekend at Camp Hanover in Richmond, Va. We were facilitating an IMPACT session and were both facilitators. We spent the weekend pretending not to spend every free moment together... and on Sunday Jesse drove me back to Richmond and I gave him my number. Three days later he came back to Richmond for our first date - on Halloween!
We had fun reminiscing this past weekend and celebrating a little... Saturday night we had the Hastings over for our traditional Saturday evening dinner and game day. After dinner, three separate couples stopped by and we enjoyed dessert and catching up. Jesse and I decorated yesterday and bought a big bowl of candy for our trick-or-treaters.... excited for hot-dogs, pumpkin dip, and caramel apples on Thursday!
Happy six years babe! I love you... and can't wait to spent many more Halloween's together... creating many more spooky traditions.
What was your favorite Halloween tradition as a kid? Please do share...
xo, trace
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