Kick Off to the Holiday Season

Decorations did not go up on October 1st. In fact I think they took an extra week or so this year. Emma was in charge of the layout and she did a fabulous job. It's always fun to gather up the regular items that are normally displayed in the house - the books, the family photos, a few special knick-knacks here and there. I know I won't be seeing them again until the middle of January. And so begins the holiday season. 

I used to love Halloween just because it meant we were well and truly deep into the beautiful autumn, and that Christmas is just around the corner. But I've come to love it for its own sake. Halloween makes the early dark of the evenings seem cozy instead of bleak. Picking out a costume for work and with Troy has become so fun since we started dressing up together a few years ago.  And I've always got my eye out for good additions to our collection of witchy decorations.

A few days before Halloween itself was our ward's 4th annual chili cook-off, aptly named Spooks-n-Beans by my friend Bryan. Troy and I toyed with the idea of several different costumes - I was a little slow on the get-go and kind of ran out of time for my favorite ideas, which ranged from the queen of England and her husband to the Heat Miser and the Cold Miser. Check back in future years for the hopeful appearance of these fine characters. Instead, I went with something that turned out to be easy. We went as Drs. Grant and Sattler from Jurassic Park. Troy looked great. I looked ridiculous. Turns out that a crappy wig from Spirit Halloween just can't help me look like Laura Dern in any way. But it was still fun.

Huh. I'm searching for photos of us from that night and I can't find any which is actually fine with me because I really did look ridiculous. Fun night though.

I was on the Halloween committee at work - which basically just meant that I had to attend a meeting every couple of weeks to plan out the day, then gear up for a very busy couple of shifts on the 30th and 31st. It was indeed very busy but there's nothing like helping kids pick out costumes and collect some tricks and treats.

Our child life team voted for the group costume to be beanie babies. It's a great idea - you can really be any animal or character you want to be and then you just add the ty beanie baby tag and there you have it. I went with the Princess Diana bear - all purple with a silver rose emblem. Funnily enough, my former officemate Becca chose the same bear. I had an image in my head of how cute it would be but....I feel like I just look old and tired. 

 

Nothing a little diet coke couldn't handle

Another former officemate, Ashley, and I decided to demonstrate just how very tired we were.

Romney also had to dress up for work and she and her coworker went as Kermit and Miss Piggy. Super clever.

 

That evening we, for the second year, experienced what it was like to have no an empty-nester Halloween. Emma dressed as a flapper and headed out with friends which is just how it should be. I don't remember what Chase did, but he wasn't around either, and Romney...well, Romney doesn't live at our house any more. I'm sure she did something with friends.

Didn't Emma make the cutest flapper? And I'm remembering that she wasn't just any flapper - she was being Lina Lamont from the movie Singing in the Rain. Extra cute.

After Emma and Chase were both gone for the evening, Troy and I ended up having a really lovely time. We decided we didn't want to be alone and we ended up inviting the Bucherts over for CrioBru and a movie. We kind of thought we'd watch Ghostbusters like we did last year, but Martin talked us into a very fun and magical movie called Stardust. It was so fun to cozy up and enjoy the movie, plus visits from a couple of friends who had recently had babies and we got to see them for the first time. Times change. We used to have half the neighborhood over for soup on the porch before a long night of trick-or-treating, and now we hang out with old people just like ourselves. And it's still fun, if a little bitter sweet to think back on all the fun years of costumes and candy and parades and class parties. Boy that was exhausting. And fun too.