As much as I love decorating for all of these different holidays though, nothing will ever compare to the rush I feel decorating for Halloween. Every year, I wander the Halloween stores looking for the perfect decorations. Over the years, my family has collected everything from a headless woman, a giant skeleton bird, and a creepy scare crow. There are still so many things I would love to get and I'm sure one day, I will. Halloween is my yearly challenge. I'm always determined to outdo myself. My largest challenge is how far we can stretch the cobweb. Although, I'm pretty sure nothing will ever compare to 2011 when we stretched cobwebs from the tree, over the footpath, onto the house. Before the cobweb challenge though, we focused on entertainment. For our 2008 Halloween, my sister cackled from the bedroom window with the strobe light running and we blasted scary music onto the street. My favorite memory from that year though has to be when my mom abruptly opened the door before a group of middle school boys had the chance to ring it. They nearly fell backwards they were so scared. Last year, was mine and my husband's first Halloween at our house in California. Our decorations looked fantastic, although, they were somewhat destroyed by the Santa Ana winds. Being from Colorado, I'm still surprised by this. These decorations held up through countless snowstorms and yet could not survive the wind out here. The other disappointing part of last years Halloween was the amount of kids we didn't get. Although, my husband was quite pleased to have so much leftover candy!
Here are our decorations from 2011:
This year, I'm eager to start some new traditions. Here's my list:
- Interactive Murder Mystery Party: I'm been wanting to do this for at least the last four years and we are finally doing it this year! I am incredibly grateful that my sister's boyfriend writes Murder Mystery Theaters!
- Carving a pumpkin: Yes. I've never actually done this and I've found an amazing website where I can get patterns of Spike, Buffy, and Dexter - as I said earlier, I like challenges. Which means my first carving ever will be of someone's face. Yikes.
- Halloween Festival: I've never gone on a hayride before or walked through a corn maze or picked a pumpkin from the patch. All of these things must happen and we've decided to go next week.
- Make/Bake Tasty Treats: I love to bake and therefore plan to try making Carmel Apple Cupcakes and Pumpkin Cupcakes. I also bought a candy making kit. I've never made candy before but it sounds like fun!
My other tradition is watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I watch each of the Halloween episodes: Halloween, Fear, Itself, All the Way, and I throw in the episode Hush. If I'm still awake and ready to continue watching something, I switch for something light and watch the Halloween episode of Friends, "The One with the Halloween Party". Because I'm eager to expand my traditions, I've got some other shows and episodes to choose from too:
- Chuck: Chuck vs. the Sandworm and Chuck vs. the Aisle of Terror
- Castle: Vampire Weekend and Demons
- Psych: This Episode Sucks
- Beverly Hills, 90210: Halloween and Things That Go Bang in the Night
- Dawson's Creek: Friday the 13th and Living Dead Girl
- Party of Five: Personal Demons
- Veronica Mars: President Evil
- The Big Bang Theory: The Middle Earth Paradigm, The Good Guy Fluctuation, and The Holographic Excitation
The only thing I will never do for Halloween is go to a Haunted House. I know this is a big tradition for a lot of people but I absolutely can't stand them. If I set it up, that would be another story. I love spooking other people but I hate being spooked. Having people or objects jump out at me is not my idea of a good time.
What are your October/Halloween traditions? Do you watch any shows or movies every year for the holiday? What do you normally carve on a pumpkin?
Great blog! I enjoy Halloween so much more through you and your sister's eyes!
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