I love Halloween! It is my absolute favorite holiday. I love all of the traditions of all of the holidays and each one is special to me in its own way but Halloween is my favorite. I remember the excitement as a child of getting to dress up and go out after dark door to door with my my sisters and get candy. Then we would come home and pour it all out in a pile and trade for favorites!!!! My dad always did a great job decorating the outside of the house and my mom would decorate the inside. My mom would keep a tally of how many kids came by trick or treating.That was back when your costume included one of those plastic masks with the rubber band holding it on your head. There would be two tiny slits to see through, holes so you could breath and this little bit opening in the mouth area. The costume came in a box and no one was worried about how safe it was.
When the big boys were little we would have to drive around to take them trick or treating. We don't live in a "neighborhood" so we would pile in the car and go to our friends. We would end up at Nana and Nanoo's house where Matthew would get a chance to hand out treats to the kids who trick or treated there.
I love decorating for Halloween and these days put most of my decorating efforts into the library. This year I had scary window coverings (a skeleton on one and a yellow eyed cat on the other). I built a castle wall with a big black crow, lighted cobweb and skeleton. There were eerie lights, scarecrows, jack-o-lanterns, skulls and bats throughout the library. And all of my leopards wore masks (the leopard is our school mascot and I have about 20 of them in the library). Scary music played in the background and I had the lights turned down. It was great!
Each year our staff tries to come up with a theme for our costumes as a surprise to the kids on Halloween. There is a school parade (imagine 710 students marching around the playground, through the district office next door and back) that parents all come to watch. This year we had the best theme ever. Someone suggested that we be candy. We had a whole bag of M&Ms (I was a yellow peanut M&Ms). There were also boxes of SweetHearts, Reeses Cups, a Kiss, several Tooth Fairies, a Pez Dispenser, Tootsie Roll, a Hershey Bar and Cotton Candy. Not everyone does the theme but everyone gets in the spirit. There were leopards, pirates, and even a "surfer dude". Our yard duty aides always come up with something unique. This year they dressed as Santa and his reindeer.
It's a great day.For the past few years we have celebrated Halloween night with Georgia & Robert. They do over the top decorations and we have a great time. Last year they designed the "Tunnel of Terror" on the walkway leading up to their door. All of our grown kids come and Laurie takes Terry out trick or treating in their neighborhood.
This year Terry has chosen to be a pirate. I think he makes the cutest pirate ever.
I hope your Halloween is Spooktacular and you get lots of treats!
