Halloween

Last night was Halloween. It was a Halloween of transition. Between moving houses and kids growing up, it was not the same.

Usually I LOVE Halloween. For years I have taken great pride in decorating our house with increasingly creepy decorations. Above is my very favorite decoration, lovingly named Matilda. She is so ugly and creepy. It is awesome.

When the kids were smaller I had gentler decorations. A few years ago, I decided they could handle creepy Matilda’s, skeletons, crazy cats, and scary stuff. So.much.fun.

This year, because of the move (which I’m tired of talking about!), I didn’t decorate. Which was a royal shame because our neighborhood goes BIG for Halloween. Massive decorations. The streets are shut down for trick-or-treaters. There are garage parties for all. It is a good, good time.

So I felt really lame not decorating our house the first year we occupied it. But we moved out a few days before Halloween and my Halloween bins were in storage, so…..I took a hall pass this year.

But I missed it! I broke down this week-end and brought out Matilda and a few new animal skeletons I bought at Rite Aid on a whim. The pet skeletons are all the rage this year. I love when they make crazy, creepy sounds. I now have a cat skeleton named Peg and a dog skeleton named Skeeter. Amazing.

My big kids are teenagers now. Here’s what I have learned about teenage Halloween. It is SO not fun. They don’t dress up in real costumes. They are too cool to hang with you. They want to disappear with friends. And they deserve to have fun, but wow, so different than the years of finding the perfect costume, delighting in looking amazingly cool/scary/cute/whatever, trick or treating for hours, and loading up on enough candy to last for months.

So this year I made a vow. Next year I am going ALL IN. My house will be crazy, crazy, crazy Halloween lady. I’m going to dress up. I haven’t in years, but I love the people that are brave enough to rock a costume at work. Why not take advantage of the opportunity to dress up in something amazing? I’m finding a Halloween party to go to – or throwing one. And I’m going to embrace the awesomeness that is Halloween.

Even though my kids are growing up, my husband doesn’t like to dress up, and my friends don’t typically throw costume parties, next year is a new year.

I am all about Halloween. And it is going to be amazing.