Halloween is our family's second-favorite holiday (you really can't beat Christmas). But Halloween is celebrated all month long in the Droegemueller household. The father in our home happens to be a HUGE classic horror movie fan, and has quite the collection on DVD. So many, in fact, that we can watch two horror movies each night in the month of October and still have some movies left over for November (and yes, that is what we did last month). We do have some family-favorites that aren't quite horror but have tie-ins to horror themes, like the Munsters TV show, the Three Stooges, and Abbott and Costello. Usually the children preferred staying upstairs and watching a cartoon, but at other times they joined us. That led to some interesting evenings where, after a zombie or or vampire movie, Abby or Augie were scared or had bad dreams. But on the whole, it was good family fun.
The whole dress-up-and-trick-or-treat thing started in August when the children began thinking of their costumes. Abby was the first to pick hers out. Our neighbors had a goldfish costume that was really cute, and she loved it immediately. We painted her cheeks and nose orange and she looked very goldfishy on Halloween. Augie got to choose from his older brothers' outgrown costumes, so he was the Flash. He loved demonstrating how fast he could run.
Sam had a really hard time picking his costume. Finally I had him browse the internet for costume ideas and he chose to be Indiana Jones. We bought a hat and whip, added his own pants and shirt, and the costume was done. He had a little too much fun with the whip before Halloween so it got taken away until Halloween night.
Jimmy was the last to pick a costume. He really wanted to be Iron Man, but we couldn't find a costume in his size. I tried to convince him to be Darth Vader, because we had all the pieces and parts to it, and although he agreed at first, his heart was really set on Iron Man. It was just too sad to not let him be his dream hero this year, so I gave in. I looked at five stores the Saturday before Halloween, with no luck. No one had a costume above a size 8. So we ended up getting a red sweatshirt, some red and gold fabric, and making a costume. Usually I sew them a costume anyway, but this year I was just not in the mood and very busy. But in the end we sewed gold patches on the red sweatshirt and I made the gold and red pants. We hurried and made a mask out of a paper plate 15 minutes before the Trunk or Treat Halloween night, and finally the costume was finished!
Pumpkins are always a big deal at our house, but this year was just so busy that we ended up starting to carve our Jack-o-lanterns at 9:00 the day before Halloween. It was crazy, but we got the guts scooped out and the faces cut out and the mess hauled away before 10:00. Abby and Augie had simple but fun faces on their pumpkins. Sam carved the Green Lantern symbol and Jimmy carved a cat head (Catwoman) then "vs" and a Batman symbol. Daddy's pumpkin was very cool. It showed three ghosts peeking out from behind a tombstone, a spooky tree with an owl, and other graveyard details. He cut it in layers so that with the candles behind the pumpkin shell it had depth and neat little details. He was really excited to use his Dremmel tool this year and that's why he picked a more complicated scene (and he finished much later than the rest of us, but it turned out great!)
On Halloween we actually had two trunk or treats -- one at the church, and one across the street from the church at the greenbelt put on by all the single adult branches. So needless to say our children had PLENTY of candy. Then we came home, ordered pizza, and watched (what else) monster movies.
I had two costumes. On the Tuesday before Halloween our YW group had a reverse trick or treat activity. I dressed up as the Bride of Frankenstein. However, getting my hair to stick up was very difficult and took three hours of frying and crimping and hairspraying. So on Halloween I was the bride of Fu Manchu and wore my Chinese style dress and slicked back my hair. Very simple but good enough for a trunk or treat. It was actually very nice weather, high 50's and warm enough to go without a jacket. Later that night it rained so we were glad we'd skipped the regular door-to-door trick or treating.
Myself as the Bride of Frankenstein, and the infamous Fu Manchu.
