Halloween 2010

My 2010 Jack-O-Lanterns

I think this will be the last Halloween post of 2010, but I’m not making any promises. This past Sunday, as you know, was Halloween – one of my favorite holidays! Sunday afternoon I carved pumpkins in preparation for trunk-or-treat at church and the trick-or-treaters at my house.

Carving pumpkins is my most beloved Halloween tradition. I can remember carving pumpkins with my dad as a young child and when I moved away to this state or that, I always carried on the tradition by myself. I actually debated on whether or not to carve pumpkins this year; but, I decided not to let any sadness get in the way of my continued tradition of pumpkin carving and Sunday afternoon I got out the knife and spoon and got to work.

I was originally going to do just one pumpkin, but ended up carving both of the pumpkins I had on hand. I also usually use the pumpkin patterns you can buy at the store, but this year I decided to go old school and just carve out my own jack-o-lantern design.

After I carved the pumpkins, it was time to get ready for church and trunk-or-treat. I think I mentioned last year how weird I think trunk-or-treating is. I much prefer the old school door-to-door trick-or-treating and I feel sad that a lot of kids will never know this age old tradition. Nevertheless, trunk-or-treating can be fun for both young and old.

When church service was over, I headed outside and lit the candles in my jack-o-lanterns and set up a chair to pass out candy. It was a lot cooler out than I expected and I wished I had brought along a jacket. Trunk-or-treat started about 6:15 or so and I stayed and handed out candy for 45 minutes or maybe even an hour. There were a lot of people there; not just children from our congregation, but also people from the surrounding area neighborhoods; so, it was essential to have a lot of candy on hand. Thankfully, I was wise and only gave out two pieces of candy per child as opposed to the four of five pieces I usually give out. Otherwise I would have run out, as some people did. I always watch for kids that come back for more candy and I had to shoo away a few kids who thought they could trick me into giving them a second helping. Wrong, kiddo! I have a good memory!

My Jack-O-Lanterns and Candy Bowl

This was the set up at the car next to me - they outdid my lame set up!

Most of the kids were polite. I had a few who were not including one who as I was reaching to get some candy, said, “I want that kind,” and grabbed what he wanted and took off. I was kind of in shock considering this was a kid that I knew. There were lots of great costumes this year, and seriously, there were tons of Marios from Super Mario Brothers. Are they making a comeback? I feel old having to ask this question when this would typically be something I would know about.

Here are some of the costumes from trunk-or-treat:

This is one of the Corder boys. I don’t know which one. I think Peyton. I always get the younger two mixed up. He was a baker from “Mom’s Kitchen” and passed out free homemade cookies. They were good too!

Silas, the son of my friend Candy, came as a penguin and was adorable! He waddled over to the candy bowl and had his pick of the treats. 

Candy’s charming daughter Jane Claire was Cinderella. She was all about posing for the camera. I had to take a few different shots of her because I couldn’t find the right setting.

Sara’s son Bryson was Scooby Doo and her husband, Stephen was Shaggy. They were really cute! Sara’s oldest boy, Brayden, came as Buddy, Will Ferrell’s character from Elf, one of my all time favorite movies. Sara came as a BP oil spill clean up worker and her costume was awesome! I was actually a little jealous that I didn’t come up with something as cleaver as this! It came complete with a rescued bird too!

This Scooby doesn't look too happy; but he's cute!

Poor bird! Hope Sara gets it cleaned up!

Alison’s lovely daughter Nina was (I believe) an Egyptian princess.

After I passed out almost all of my candy, I decided to leave the festivities so I could get home and pass out candy to any kids that came by my house. I obviously loved going door-to-door as a kid and as an older kid I love to hand out the treats. It makes me laugh every time I say, “What are you supposed to be?” and “Oh, you look so scary!” or “Oh, you look so pretty!” Yep, I am definitely an adult now.

I had a couple of more bags of candy at home and opened those up for the neighborhood kids. I had my biggest crowd yet with 27 trick-or-treaters. I realize this isn’t a lot compared to some neighborhoods, but I usually average about 13 or so. I guess the word is out on the street that I pass out good candy! Ha!

The last trick-or-treater stopped by around 8:20 and I closed up shop about 8:45. I was pleasantly surprised that my jack-o-lanterns made it the whole night on the porch without getting stolen and smashed in the street like last year.

The Tide is looking for ghosts and goblins.

Pay no attention to my filthy door.

As far as Halloween’s go, this one wasn’t too bad – I even had some candy left over, which is a bonus indeed. How about you? How was your Halloween?