I'm not much into Halloween these days and to say that I am would be quite a tall tale, to say the least. There was a time, however, when it was definitely an event to look forward to.
Would you have guessed, for example, that as a 12 year old, I was an active participant in Mischief Night and soaped up all of my neighbor's windows (that's one neighbor...all of their windows)? For any of you who don't know what Mischief Night is, it's the night where adults quake in their shoes, hoping that their windows don't get soaped or egged or worse yet, that their mailbox doesn't get blown up with an M-80. My best friend's dad actually got up on the roof with a water hose and blasted any kids who happened to walk on their property! It's a pretty safe assumption that any kid that's out that night walking up to a house that isn't his is definitely looking to make mischief!
I know that historically, Mischief Night takes place the same night as Halloween and it's supposed to be the trick part if you don't give a treat. Where I grew up, Mischief Night occurred the evening before Halloween, which really doesn't make sense because you don't know if you're going to get a treat or not...well, except in my case that one year where my parents dressed up as ostriches (figuratively speaking) and I played some mischief games...without going into details, let's just say that this particular neighbor got the "what comes around" part of that saying that night!
Then there was the year that my brother and I, along with a few friends, went Trick or Treating in the neighborhood. We were on the street next to where I lived, when I noticed a car at the curb and a kid getting out of the car. This kid followed us to the house where we were going, then proceeded to follow us from house to house, with the car creeping along curbside. The kid was dressed up and masked and didn't say a word to us...just followed us...and I was getting a little freaked out. Finally, I asked the kid what his name was...no response. Asked him again...again, no response. By this time, I was getting mad. I told him that if he didn't tell me who he was, I was gonna rip the mask off his face. He reluctantly removed his mask and much to my surprise, it was my younger cousin, Bobby! He lived about an hour away and it turns out that my uncle had this last minute brainstorm to surprise all of us...they dropped my aunt off at my parents' house, then drove until they found us. That was a funny trick on my uncle's part...and definitely a memorable Halloween
Another memorable year was the year that Vern and I were part-time youth directors for the High School group at our local church. My brother had just purchased an old Pennsylvania farmhouse and barn on quite a bit of property; he was planning to renovate it and sell it. It was an amazing property...one I wouldn't mind living on at all. But, at that time, it was a disaster. Wood rot, spiders, mice and the smell of bat poop...very yucky distinctive smell...OK, do you see what stage I'm setting here? A haunted house, of course. So, Vern, my brother and a couple of guys from our young married couples group got together to plan this house. It was totally amazing. My part in it included peeling grapes (for eyeballs) and cooking a vat of spaghetti...fun! They had creepy noises, a coffin that they built with one of the guys in it who periodically sat up and went after the girls with an ax in his hand. There were bats that "flew" into peoples' faces. Then there was the dark tunnel they had to crawl through...while "blood" was being poured over their heads...I can't even remember all of the gross and creepy things those guys came up with...all I can say is that most of the girls were totally freaked out and ran screaming out of the house.
I had spent a considerable amount of time planning the party...cleaning and setting up the old barn with hay bales, corn stalks and pumpkins...and it was truly an authentic and amazing Halloween party...with tons of food. We were joined by the College and Career and Young Married groups to have one big, lively event...one that was talked about for years.
Of course, as a mom, I totally got into the spirit of costumes and face paint with Ashley. In fact, one year we were dressing up at work and I went as Cleopatra. I had the bangs and straight hair...pretty much her identical hair style so it was an easy costume...just add the right clothes, lots of makeup and gold jewelry and voila! We have Cleopatra.
This year, it's pretty much a few gourds and pumpkins and lots of memorable tales! And, a funky blog banner.
Do you have any tales to share?
Happy Wednesday and hope you enjoy planning your Halloween this year.
It's been a busy, but good busy, weekend.
Added to that, I've been furiously putting together my kits for Scrap Gala, which is just around the corner in November. The kits need to get shipped to New Brunswick in the next couple of days so I really need to get into gear. Yikes. Here are some of the books that will be converted into white holiday books...I think that the white book is becoming one of my signature projects. It's been a lot of fun to make them because I do them differently each time I teach a white book class. Keeps things interesting for me and for the class, I hope!
The other thing that has me in the holiday spirit is the fact that I did my album cover for this year's Christmas album. I got tired of shifting all of the product that I was saving for the album from one spot to another and finally decided to just get efficient and get it done. It's done! I love the 7 gypsies velvet rub-ons and the Prima black bling flourish...it looks like the cover is dotted with little bits of black onyx. 
