Top 10 Notes to Self from Halloween 2012

1) If you want cool-looking jack-o-lanterns on Halloween night, don't carve pumpkins more than 48 hours in advance. I carved mine last Friday; one has already caved in and the other looks like a wrinkly old man. Not very impressive.

2) I think it's safe to say that Halloween is Spitter's least favorite holiday. Every time there was a knock on the door I could hear her growl from her hiding spot behind the couch. Poor kitty baby.

3) Never assume that the older kids will be mature and exercise restraint. One group of teens snatched handfuls until I said, "please take just one or two, I need to save some for the little kids." Emphasis included.

4) In my neighborhood, a few bags of candy ain't gonna cut it. Next year I'll need to remember to get several of the jumbo-sized bags if I expect to stay in business past 7pm. I had to turn away the sweetest little hopeful-eyed boy in a spider man costume.

5) Yes, I really did run out of candy before 7pm. I believe it was 6:48pm, to be exact. It was a total fail, even considering Halloween was on a weekday this year and most kids probably had to go home early to get ready for school the next day.

6) The sad thing is, I thought I had over-purchased. I was convinced I would have tons of candy left over. HA, boy did I turn out to be mistaken!

7) When in need of more loot, put on your creativity cap and ransack the kitchen. I weighed my options for appropriate potential handouts, and came up with sugar packets and/or Emergen-C.

8) Emergen-C packets look enough like Fun Dip that I figured I could at least trick the littler kids into thinking they were getting a real treat.

9) Older kids, however, can sniff out when you're trying to dupe them. Literally. When I was down to my last few pieces of the good candy and had to supplement my candy bowl with only only other pre-packaged items I could find, one boy (he was at least 12) picked up the packet of Emergen-C I dropped in his bag and SNIFFED IT.

10) If you run out of treat options and have to go into premature hiding, it helps with the feelings of lameness if yours is not the only dark house on the block. Several of my neighbors turned off their porch lights around the same time I did...I wonder if we're all newbies to the neighborhood who underestimated the surrounding population of candy seekers, or if there was a recent population surge that even the veteran residents weren't expecting??

Pre-Halloween festivities!

A recent Halloween tradition for my family is gathering at someone's house for dinner, a movie, and pumpkin carving. This year, the event happened my my little house!

Mom and I rented Coraline, but Ross vetoed that movie choice (he's very picky about the Tim Burton movies he likes). We ended up watching Hocus Pocus, a classic childhood favorite for me and Ross (the parents- mom, in particular- were less than enthusiastic, since we tend to end up watching it every year and Ross and I can recite the entire movie start to finish, haha).

For dinner, mom made an amazing homemade-from-scratch "traditional" chili (no beans and no tomatos, just the way I like it!). My dad contributed delicious cornbread, but after receiving several compliments he declared that it was jut "a box from Marie Calendar and some water." I made brownies, because they have been my family's dessert of choice for as long as I can remember and I am the family's brownie baker extraordinaire (though I admit, my brownies also come from a box).

After dinner and the movie, we headed out to the backyard for some pumpkin carving! Last year (or the year before that? I can't remember now) we carved 4 pumpkins, but this year we decided to share. All the fun, half the mess! My favorite part is that mom and Ross went out to get tea-light candles, and returned with vanilla scented Glade candles! It cracked me up!

My jack-o-lantern is supposed to be a cat, but upon closer inspection it looks like The Count from Sesame Street!

Happy (almost) Halloween, everybody! Have fun and be safe!