Halloween

As you might imagine, being a Wicked Gardener and all, Halloween is a very special time around my home. There are so many reasons why this season is special. As a kid, Halloween was full of fun and exasperation at finding out what mother had come up with for my costume. One year I was a Rubik's cube with a large immobile box and construction paper squares. Another year I was Dorothy from Wizard of Oz. It was a very cute costume sewn by my aunt. Unfortunately my hair was blond, and Dorothy's was not. So my Mom and Aunt spray painted it black, which gave my Dad a conniption fit when it didn't come out for a few days. Finally, I was once a gumball machine. Yep, a gumball machine. The gumballs were colored balloons stuffed into a clear plastic bag and the whole thing put over my head. The worst part of this was that the plastic bag tore and the balloons started falling out, delighting the neighborhood kids who went down the street popping them. Seriously, was a fairy princess that hard to pull off?

Halloween became more significant over ten years ago, when I was a co-ed on vacation from school and my Monster was a married waiter who worked with and lived next to my friend who now is the Nursery Nazi. She had young son and I'd come over to help carve pumpkins. Her husband and my Monster, who was always there hanging out, joined in. Eventually, the carving became a competition, and an annual tradition we still do today. One year, when my Monster's marriage had ended and I moved back to Ocala, he asked me out. The date, our first, was on Halloween. Six years and a little girl later, we were married on Halloween. This October 31st will be our first anniversary. The party developed just as organically. The neighborhood we moved into is very Halloween friendly. I wanted to take my daughter trick-or-treating and my husband wanted to come with us, so my Mom volunteered to stay at the house and pass out candy. My Dad heard she was coming and wanted to come by too. My Monsters-in-law heard my parents were coming by and they wanted to come. Everyone else heard our parents were coming to our house for Halloween and a party was born. I don't even have send out invitations. Everyone just comes over! Eventually, I'd like to turn it into a block party, a fun way to meet the neighbors. So these are decorations for this year. A skeleton theme. Halloween decorations always look crappy in the daylight. Come back to the blog Thursday and I'll post the pictures of decorations at night and of the party.

Happy Halloween!!!!