Showing posts with label PARTY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PARTY. Show all posts
Monday, August 27, 2012
Spirit Halloween
Friday, July 27, 2012
Halloween Party
From the Skip To My Lou blog - see more party pics here:
http://www.skiptomylou.org/2010/10/26/halloween-party-decorations/
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Here & There
One of the more amusing traditions I have in the post-Halloween season is what I call 'Here & There' (sometimes known as: Oh, look what I found!) This is yet another of my little yearly traditions at our house that invariably happens year after year. How does Here & There work? Well, as I pointed out in previous posts, most of our Halloween decorations actually come down the weekend BEFORE Halloween. I know this seems odd, but the sheer enormity of the job, and the crazy amount of items we have dictate this rule. The outside decorations come down on Halloween night for the most part, with a few that I might have missed or were too tired to bother with coming down on All Souls Day.
This is where Here & There begins.
Putting away the Halloween stuff for another year is bittersweet. On the one hand, the decorations have been up for over a month - so when it's time for them to come down, it's time. On the other - it's cool living in a house that's completely transformed for that short span of time. It's a big job and I wonder each year how in the heck it's all going to fit into the orange and black Rubbermaids we have in our crawlspace (sometimes they don't - and we have to add yet another Rubbermaid to our collection and hope it fits in with the rest under the stairs). But, once the job is done, it's a relief to know that it's all packed safely away and life can once again return to normal...
Except I will find a Halloween candle-holder here. Going about my daily routines I will stumble across a string of Halloween lights there ("How did I miss those?") Oh, look - I found this necklace that was part of my daughter's Halloween costume. Here's some prizes I bought for next year's party in this Target bag in the bedroom. There's some black plastic tablecloths in the crawl-space I missed ("I must have walked past those a hundred times!") Here's the jack-'o-lantern guts scooper/scraper thing. There's another set of vampire teeth ("Where do these keep coming from?") You see what I mean? We are now entering into the second week of November and I am STILL playing Here & There - and I fully expect this strange custom to continue for the rest of...
Oh, look - here's a...
This is where Here & There begins.
Putting away the Halloween stuff for another year is bittersweet. On the one hand, the decorations have been up for over a month - so when it's time for them to come down, it's time. On the other - it's cool living in a house that's completely transformed for that short span of time. It's a big job and I wonder each year how in the heck it's all going to fit into the orange and black Rubbermaids we have in our crawlspace (sometimes they don't - and we have to add yet another Rubbermaid to our collection and hope it fits in with the rest under the stairs). But, once the job is done, it's a relief to know that it's all packed safely away and life can once again return to normal...
Except I will find a Halloween candle-holder here. Going about my daily routines I will stumble across a string of Halloween lights there ("How did I miss those?") Oh, look - I found this necklace that was part of my daughter's Halloween costume. Here's some prizes I bought for next year's party in this Target bag in the bedroom. There's some black plastic tablecloths in the crawl-space I missed ("I must have walked past those a hundred times!") Here's the jack-'o-lantern guts scooper/scraper thing. There's another set of vampire teeth ("Where do these keep coming from?") You see what I mean? We are now entering into the second week of November and I am STILL playing Here & There - and I fully expect this strange custom to continue for the rest of...
Oh, look - here's a...
Friday, October 28, 2011
Best Costume
My wife and I took the kids to the annual Fall Fun Night at our local elementary school. After we had our pizza and pop we stood in line to play some Halloween themed games. As I'm standing there feeling underwhelmed by the sea of store-bought costumes (to be fair, my son has a hand-painted skeleton mask this year and my daughter put together her vampire costume all by herself - even if the dress was from a garage sale) I suddenly noticed that a boy in front of me clearly has a hand-made costume. So now I'm grinning ear-to-ear and my wife says: "What's so funny?" I point at the kid's costume and say: "Homemade." To which my wife replies:
"What's he supposed to be?"
I'll be honest with you - I'm not sure WHAT the kid was supposed to be - but he had my vote for best costume. A weird conglomeration of cardboard, Gorilla Tape, black long underwear, black football pants (with pads), black landscaping plastic, and various elements that might have been cannibalized from some other Halloween costume that probably no longer fit, including a hand-crafted skeleton type mask that looked right out of the movie Flash Gordon, all of it highlighted with strategic bits of silver duct-tape, this kid had the most unique costume in the entire gymnasium - and it was obviously crafted with a lot of love, ambition, and attention to detail - and obviously without mom and dad's help.
Impressed with the boy's ingenuity and true sense of Halloween spirit, I tapped him on the shoulder and asked him: "Did you make your costume yourself?" He nodded his head in the affirmative, so after telling him I loved the costume and appreciated his effort at making it himself - a Halloween tradition that has long since faded away since commercialism took over the holiday - I asked him: "What are you supposed to be?" He shrugged his shoulders and grinned.
"I'm not sure!"
The perfect answer.
"What's he supposed to be?"
I'll be honest with you - I'm not sure WHAT the kid was supposed to be - but he had my vote for best costume. A weird conglomeration of cardboard, Gorilla Tape, black long underwear, black football pants (with pads), black landscaping plastic, and various elements that might have been cannibalized from some other Halloween costume that probably no longer fit, including a hand-crafted skeleton type mask that looked right out of the movie Flash Gordon, all of it highlighted with strategic bits of silver duct-tape, this kid had the most unique costume in the entire gymnasium - and it was obviously crafted with a lot of love, ambition, and attention to detail - and obviously without mom and dad's help.
Impressed with the boy's ingenuity and true sense of Halloween spirit, I tapped him on the shoulder and asked him: "Did you make your costume yourself?" He nodded his head in the affirmative, so after telling him I loved the costume and appreciated his effort at making it himself - a Halloween tradition that has long since faded away since commercialism took over the holiday - I asked him: "What are you supposed to be?" He shrugged his shoulders and grinned.
"I'm not sure!"
The perfect answer.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Sweeping Up
After all the hard work of storing away countless Halloween decorations in their proper places was done (for the most part), I treated myself to one of the best episodes of AMC'S THE WALKING DEAD that I've ever seen. A great way to end a fabulous weekend. Pictures to come at www.hallowzing.com.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Party Time
Monday, October 3, 2011
School Daze
We took a drive through my old hometown this past weekend and I had a random Halloween memory of something I hadn't thought of in ages. Driving past the Catholic church and school, I saw they were having some kind of Fall Festival outside - including a bean-bag toss game (or one of those portrait type things that you stand behind and stick you face in the hole) with life-size boards, one of which featured a fairly realistic-looking witch.
Seeing this as we drove past made me think of the Halloween parties we had at the same school back in the late '70's and early '80's. You would think because it was a religious school that Halloween would be shunned - but in all actuality it was really quite the opposite. When I was a kid the church embraced the holiday and all its pagan symbolism, even going as far as throwing one of best and most elaborate Halloween parties in their basement/cafeteria that you could imagine.
As you could probably guess, the St. Thomas Halloween party was an event you looked forward to all year. On the day of Halloween you'd get to wear your costume to school and pass out treats and goodies in class. Everything would be Halloween-themed that day: the spelling words, the arts and crafts, the books at story-time, EVERYTHING! You'd wear your costume all day until it was finally time to go back for the big party - and the anticipation you'd feel as you walked down the steps - strewn with fall leaves and corn-stalks - into the basement was deliriously wonderful - your mind would run wild imagining what sinister scenario was waiting for you behind those two swinging doors.
And each year, the school didn't disappoint. After class let out, the staff would go to great lengths to transform the basement into a creepy Halloween wonderland. The lights would be turned off and the tables moved out of the way. The room would be decorated with cobwebs galore, cardboard black cats and witch heads, ghosts and bats, black and orange streamers on the ceiling, jack-o-lanterns, and more. And the games - oh, the games! Bobbing for apples, pin the tail on the black cat, the wheel of fortune, fortune telling (with a gypsy that had a real crystal ball!) and my favorite - The Devil himself! Yes, even Old Scratch paid a visit to our school! Beelzebub would be a man in a red spandex outfit with a red mask, horns, tail, and trident. Beside was a pile of mats from gym class, and the game would be you tried to get past the Devil without him tripping you. He was sneaky, that old demon. Just when you thought he wasn't looking and you'd make a mad dash for it, out would come the Devil's leg, tripping you and sending you sprawling onto the mats.
But the best was always saved for last. At the far end of the cafeteria, through a second set of swinging doors (and what led into the cook's kitchen area) was the Mad Scientist. A truly demented show, this never failed to both delight us and scare the living death out of us kids. A theatrical, hunch-backed, over-the-top church parishioner played the part to the hilt, letting us feel real sawed up (cow) bones, and (peeled grape) eyeballs. He'd saw and grind his monster's 'body' apart with various implements, all the while trying to entice us to lay on the table and be his next experiment. We would all shriek with fear - many kids couldn't stand the fright and would bolt out the door. It was the absolute pinnacle of Halloween, except for one thing...
When the St. Thomas party was over, you actually got to go TRICK-OR-TREATING! Remember, this was around 1979, so trick-or-treating lasted well into the night. Kids didn't go out until 7:00 p.m. or so and we'd beg for candy until after 10:00 p.m. and sometimes even later! Things have changed since then - trick-or-treating is a lot more of a cautious activity - but the memories of my Halloween youth at the old Catholic school stay with me always, and are a big part of defining the home haunter I am today...
Seeing this as we drove past made me think of the Halloween parties we had at the same school back in the late '70's and early '80's. You would think because it was a religious school that Halloween would be shunned - but in all actuality it was really quite the opposite. When I was a kid the church embraced the holiday and all its pagan symbolism, even going as far as throwing one of best and most elaborate Halloween parties in their basement/cafeteria that you could imagine.
As you could probably guess, the St. Thomas Halloween party was an event you looked forward to all year. On the day of Halloween you'd get to wear your costume to school and pass out treats and goodies in class. Everything would be Halloween-themed that day: the spelling words, the arts and crafts, the books at story-time, EVERYTHING! You'd wear your costume all day until it was finally time to go back for the big party - and the anticipation you'd feel as you walked down the steps - strewn with fall leaves and corn-stalks - into the basement was deliriously wonderful - your mind would run wild imagining what sinister scenario was waiting for you behind those two swinging doors.
And each year, the school didn't disappoint. After class let out, the staff would go to great lengths to transform the basement into a creepy Halloween wonderland. The lights would be turned off and the tables moved out of the way. The room would be decorated with cobwebs galore, cardboard black cats and witch heads, ghosts and bats, black and orange streamers on the ceiling, jack-o-lanterns, and more. And the games - oh, the games! Bobbing for apples, pin the tail on the black cat, the wheel of fortune, fortune telling (with a gypsy that had a real crystal ball!) and my favorite - The Devil himself! Yes, even Old Scratch paid a visit to our school! Beelzebub would be a man in a red spandex outfit with a red mask, horns, tail, and trident. Beside was a pile of mats from gym class, and the game would be you tried to get past the Devil without him tripping you. He was sneaky, that old demon. Just when you thought he wasn't looking and you'd make a mad dash for it, out would come the Devil's leg, tripping you and sending you sprawling onto the mats.
But the best was always saved for last. At the far end of the cafeteria, through a second set of swinging doors (and what led into the cook's kitchen area) was the Mad Scientist. A truly demented show, this never failed to both delight us and scare the living death out of us kids. A theatrical, hunch-backed, over-the-top church parishioner played the part to the hilt, letting us feel real sawed up (cow) bones, and (peeled grape) eyeballs. He'd saw and grind his monster's 'body' apart with various implements, all the while trying to entice us to lay on the table and be his next experiment. We would all shriek with fear - many kids couldn't stand the fright and would bolt out the door. It was the absolute pinnacle of Halloween, except for one thing...
When the St. Thomas party was over, you actually got to go TRICK-OR-TREATING! Remember, this was around 1979, so trick-or-treating lasted well into the night. Kids didn't go out until 7:00 p.m. or so and we'd beg for candy until after 10:00 p.m. and sometimes even later! Things have changed since then - trick-or-treating is a lot more of a cautious activity - but the memories of my Halloween youth at the old Catholic school stay with me always, and are a big part of defining the home haunter I am today...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
