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Happy Halloween (2008)!

Thursday, October 30, 2008

With each holiday comes a set of things parents must do, things expected, things greatly anticipated. Christmas, of course, is the big one, the one that, if you buy into it the way merchants want you to, can devour a month or more of your busy life. Everywhere you turn, there are Christmas--excuse me--"holiday" decorations. I saw them in a Wegman's grocery store in Jamestown, New York in the third week of October. And there was this strangely ambiguous placard right next to the huge pyramid of Christmas trees. It said something like, "Some shoppers shop ahead and others prefer to wait until closer to the holidays to do their shopping. By placing these decorations out, we are allowing you to make your own choice."

Oh. Gee. Thanks for allowing me to make my own choice. And by the way, your dopey Thankoweenmas decorations bum me out.


Mama. Take a picture of me like this (poses).

I like Halloween. It comes with its own set of expectations, sure, and there's some parental stress, but it's vastly less of an exercise than Christmas. I like it especially because it's Liam's self-professed "favorite day of the year." That's enough for me, even if I didn't already like ghouls and witches, haints and jack-o-lanterns.

Because I was in Jamestown for trick-or-treat, Bill promised the kids we'd carve pumpkins the night before I had to leave. My part was getting the kids' costumes squared away. I am not a tinfoil robot-making kind of mother. I can paint faces like nobody's bidness, but I am not hand-sewing the Medusa costume, if you get my drift. I happily, nay, gleefully, spend my $20-40 rocks on store-bought costumes, dress 'em up with crazy wigs or fabulous face paint, and relax about it. Store-bought costumes are good, store-bought costumes are great; they are enough.

And so BOTB dug into the punkins, with the kids designing the faces and hanging over him and
me behind the camera.My sweet little artists.
not yet perfectionists, but darn close.
Can you carve this, Daddy?
I'll try. To make a jack-o-lantern, you have to stick a knife in the pumpkin. It's the way of the world, kid.
Having strong arms, he did the guts removal in record time.
The obligatory vomiting-pumpkin-guts photo.
My son as a dog: Mmmm. The lid smells good.
Ah, but does it fit back on the jack-o-lantern?
Liam's creation, made flesh by the Father.
The glorious end result. They're flickering outside on the patio each night.
Yes, that is supposed to be Chet Baker, and yes, we know it turned out more like a pig. Too bad there are no decent artists in this family. Happy Thankoweenmas!

14 comments:

Thankoweenmas made me laugh out loud and then snort. LOVE IT! But the actual phenomenon bums me out, too. Christmas stuff was in the stores here around the 15th I think. Blurg.

No trick or treaters for us out in the woods. That's one drawback. But, we do have carved pumpkins out for the animals to enjoy. One has a lopsided, caught red-handed grin, and the other is the outline of a duck; both befitting of the boy's personality that they belong to :)

Happy Halloween all!

Thankoweenmas! You are brilliant! That conglomeration of festivities makes me queasy, too.

We are envious of the patio pumpkins. Ours get eaten by the moose if we leave them out.

i see chet..way to go guys!

Does anyone remember the Seinfeld episode about holiday conglomeration? What did they call it? Festivus? Help!

Trix, moose and bear definitely go in the "nice to visit, wouldn't want to live with them" drawer for me. You are made of strong stuff. AND you have wolves!!

I too see Chet Baker. The question is--what does Chet see?

All the rushing of holidays results in Thanksgiving being crowded out. Hallowe'en stuff everywhere in stores, alongside or soon to be replaced by Christmas decorations. Poor Thanksgiving. Thank goodness all you really have to get to Thanksgiving is FOOD.

Thankoweenmas is my new favorite holiday. You rock. And, thanks for the vomiting pumpkin guts pic -- it's such an important Thankoweenmas tradition.

Spewing pumpkins guts - only here :o) LOL!

I think (hope) I see more of Liam's favorite holiday.

We didn't carve or paint pumpkins this year but I'll do my best to scare the little ones enough to send them running to the first adult legs they can wrap their arms around. Bwaaaahahahaha!

I've always carved our pumpkins without stenciling out with pencil before hand. But your's came out so good ... I'm tempted to do more planning in the future. And we baked the seeds: they are so good.

BOOOO! ...yeah it was Festivus (and I'm sure there are clips of it available on the Web, as are all the Seinfeld classics).
Your post carries me right back to childhood -- don't see Halloween celebrated that way as much in urban areas anymore, but nice to see tradition carried on in rural America.
(...and what will Chet be dressing up as?)

Love your jack-o-lanterns! Happy Halloween to all the Indigo Hill clan!

Hey Liam,

If you sprinkle cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice on the inside of your jack-o-lanterns' lids before you light the candles, you get a really yummy smell. I just learned that trick this year. Happy Halloween!!!
Fiona and Wendi

You read Sweet Juniper, too!

What's Sweet Juniper? Has there been an act of convergent word coinage here?

Not at all, Julie. Your holiday contraction is safe! Sweet Juniper is a blog by a couple with 2 small children and the two Halloween costumes you cited as examples of costumes you would not make were created over there. I found them to be an unusual combination, that's why your post made me think of that one.

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