This is Halloween

I just realized today is Halloween.  It's honestly not a hard to thing to forget considering I'm in Hawaii and it doesn't even remotely feel like fall.  There are hardly any decorations up in town and I'm not dressing up this year.  Sad, I know.  But really, since there isn't anything Halloween-y going on tonight, I'm not gonna dress up just to sit on my couch.

I miss Halloween.  It used to be one of my favorite holidays.  I would prepare my costumes months in advance.  Come July, I already had my costume picked out and the materials necessary to construct it.  It was almost as big as Christmas. The month of October my brother and I would watch "scary" movies every night on Disney Channel, like Hocus Pocus and Nightmare Before Christmas.  We'd get up early on Saturday mornings, turn down the shades and lights in the family room, and curl up under a blanket, cradling each other as we terrified ourselves watching Goosebumps.  Then, there were usually many parties and opportunities to dress up and get candy at Church functions or my dad's work the week before Halloween. 


When the actual night of Halloween rolled around it was utter joy.  Michael and I would get ready hours in advance.  In elementary school I went as a witch every year.  I used to have the coolest light up witch-hat.  One year I decided to be a bum because I thought it would be the coolest thing ever to walk around with holey clothes and a sack tied to a stick, but my mom quickly nixed that one because she said it wasn't very  nice to dress up like a homeless person.  So, I went as a witch that year too. 

In middle school I realized that everyone dressed up like a witch and got a little more daring with my costumes.  Once I showed up at school dressed as a tourist for the costume contest.  No one seemed to understand that I was actually in costume because I lived in Hawaii.  The next year I went as a dog, and it was super cute.  I wore all black and wore a black baseball cap backwards with white socks coming out of the sides for ears. Then I painted my nose black and drew on some dots and whiskers.  Unfortunately, with my hair pulled back and not having gone through puberty yet, everyone thought I was a boy.  Door after door of, "Awe, you look cute son!" made explaining that I was a girl tiring and so I eventually just took the compliment (and my candy) and walked away.  After that I dressed up as things like Thing 1 and Thing 2, a mime, and a clown.  So fun!

High school was when I really stepped up the game.  I quickly learned that no one gave candy to teenagers unless their costumes were really good, so I had to pull out the big guns.  It helped that my best friend Kelsey was full of great ideas.  We were quite the pair.  When we were feeling lazy we dressed up as Air Force women in our dad's old military BDU's.  It was cool because we had our own last names on our jackets.  We were legit.  Or when we were short on time we'd put on our snowboarding gear and go as snowboarders.  Those costumes actually came in handy for trick-or-treating in Colorado because by Halloween you could always expect snow.  Other years we would spend weeks on our costumes.  Once we went as duct-tape-superheroes.  Notice the cleaning gloves. (Oh, I was also obsessed with Sunny Delight at the time...hence the sunny...D...) My favorite was when we dressed up as cars.  Yep.  We're special.  We spray painted cardboard boxes.  Kelsey's was really cool, she went as a race car.  ( I wish I had a picture)  I, still obsessed with Twilight (teenagers...) went as Bella's truck.  

That's dedication. 

Wasn't it great when Halloween meant so much?  Remember heading out into the cool, crisp night, the rich smell of fall in the air, leaves crunching beneath your feet?  I loved that feeling, that smell.  I loved spending hours walking around with my brother, filling our pillowcases to the brim. No joke, we'd leave the minute trick-or-treating started and stay out until a good twenty minutes after it ended.  We knew that by the end people just wanted to turn their lights out and stop getting knocks so they'd just dump their bowls into your bag.  We knew which houses gave out the king-sized bars.  I'm telling you, it was a science.  I think my record was 11 pounds and Michael's was 14.  14 pounds of candy!! It lasted us till February.  Then, when we were so sick of smelling the chemicals on our faces, and so tired of hauling all that weight around (14 pounds!), hands and arms covered in face paint from wiping our sweating faces, we'd head home.  There our mom had fresh-hot delivered pizza waiting for us.  We'd shower, change, and race downstairs to eat pizza and sprawl out on the living room floor to sort our candy and watch a Halloween movie with our family.  Awe...the good old days.  I think I'm feeling so nostalgic because this is the first year I haven't dressed up.  I'm definitely going to curl up on the couch and watch a spooky movie and eat pizza for old times sake though.  I love Halloween.  :) At any rate.....