Pumpkins & Spooky Fun!
Pumpkin season is in full swing with the spooky fun of Halloween creeping up. Our family celebrates at my home, decorating the house by October first. We hang up glowing purple and orange lights changing the theme year to year. When my kids were young, I’d decorate fall theme adding friendly looking ghosts and witches. As the kids got older, I switched to scary décor tying it all together with lots of festive spider webbing.
I make Zack’s favorite recipe, I always say I’m going to try a new recipe but end up making the same one, there is something nostalgic about the flavors from your childhood. I bake cornbread right before we eat so everyone can scarf down a hearty meal prior to overindulging on Halloween candy. My trick or treat candy bucket is usually missing pieces before the first sound of the doorbell.
I have an open house style invite; family and friends can join if they are available. I keep the kitchen open and chili warm. We put on a festive movie in the background. Halloween decorations and lighted candles are throughout the house. I use paper goods and disposable Halloween tablecloths and we set out our carved pumpkins lit up from the inside to show off the creations made for this year.
Some of us stay home and wait for trick or treaters. I usually opt to go into the neighborhood with my flashlight and the younger kids. We live in an area where the streets all end in cul-de-sacs and are connected by walking paths, so it feels safer because there are a lot less cars driving around. To save money I keep a large bin of costumes I’ve saved throughout the years. Adding to it as years go by.
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After Zack’s spinal cord injury, it became extremely important to me to keep doing what we always did. Hold onto the same traditions. It was emotionally painful to watch my son not be able to run through the neighborhood anymore with his teenage friends. It took time to adjust and not feel like someone punched you in the gut. The holidays seemed to enhance his injury causing me to reminisce about how things used to be, but that thinking does not do any good, so I made an intentional choice to help Zack still enjoy the holidays and create new memories. Zack had fun rolling through the neighborhood with us, talking with neighbors and watching the smaller kids trick or treat. I think it was good for him.
When he was in college, I remember him going to Halloween parties. One year he dressed as a homeless man in a wheelchair. He also had that T-shirt that says, “this is my costume”. This year Zack and his new wife Amanda, inspired by Stephen Kings novel (and movie) IT are dressing up together. Amanda will be the clown IT and Zack will be the boy from the movie. Easy costume for an individual in a wheelchair! Just tie a red helium balloon to chair and done. If you haven’t seen the movie, it’s worth watching, especially if you like scary movies. Stephen King’s stuff is definitely some of the best creepy October movie options.
But really, isn’t Halloween all about the candy - dumping out that big bag of goodies, seeing what you got! Sorting & trading. This never gets old. Everyone have a Safe, Spooky & Fun Halloween!