Several years ago, I became aware of the fact that we never got invited to any Christmas parties. I had all these wonderful ideas about how fun that would be, but we never got the opportunity. For a while, I felt really rejected. Then I realized that I didn’t know anybody who went to Christmas parties. So, I determined that we would have our own Christmas party. Apparently, it was a great idea, because everybody was delighted to accept our invitation!
So, after several years of Christmas parties, the kids started saying that it would be really fun if we had a Halloween party, too. So they could dress up and invite all their friends over to dress up with them. And I thought it was a great idea, because since we homeschool, my kids can’t go to the Halloween party at their school unless I create it myself! And, it seems that those old time Halloween parties/carnivals are getting fewer and farther between.
Here in the South, so many folks really take issue with Halloween. They see it as evil, and promoting witchcraft. I respect that position, even though I do not subscribe to it. I take a more romantic, Charlie Brown/Great Pumpkin view of this holiday. I think it’s a lot of fun to dress up and have a party, and Halloween seems like a great excuse! Or maybe it’s the Irish in me, because it was the Irish, after all, who brought the celebration to the states. At any rate, I don’t believe it’s evil. I understand that some people do evil things in honor of Halloween. But some people do evil things for no reason at all, on any given day of the year. I’m not going to stop celebrating my wedding anniversary just because it also happens to be the calendar date that JFK was shot!! (It’s also the date of C.S. Lewis’s death, but for some reason nobody ever mentions that. Go figure. I liked C.S. Lewis a lot more than JFK, but I digress. . .)
So now in addition to our annual Christmas Party, we also have a big Halloween party every year. I spend days and weeks planning, and Faith loves to help. The boys even pitch in when they can. I make really cool treats, and we decorate the house. This year I made a Frankie’s Bride cake, “Bloody Eyeballs”, Caramel Popcorn mix with little pumpkin candies in it, deviled eggs (I dye the whites orange and the filling green), orange punch, tortilla chips shaped like pumpkins to go with the seven layer dip. Faith made a special “Halloween Mix”. My friends all brought food, as well. One friend always comes early to help me decorate, and she made the cutest cupcakes, decorated like little witches with ice cream cone hats. Last year I also made “Finger” cookies, Queso Dip and a Graveyard Cake. We carve pumpkins and set them out on our front porch. We break out the fog machine. Sometimes we play guitars and sing. And we have an absolute blast.
This year we even had games for the younger children. Faith and I made a very cute “Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Black-Cat” game. The kids also played “Boo Am I?”, a variation on charades, “Pass the Pumpkin”, which is similar to “Button, button, who’s got the button?”, and “Mummy Wrap”. For the second year in a row we forgot to do the costume contest, but nobody seemed to notice! We also bobbed for apples! Yeah, I know, that’s terribly politically incorrect, but for some reason, everyone loved it.
I have uploaded a new photo album, if anybody wants to see pictures. One of Kendall’s friends, Marianna, also took a lot of pictures and let me have copies, so we have tons of pictures to share. Please check it out! If you like the pictures, leave me a comment! I’d love to know you were ‘here’, LOL!
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