An Especially Eerie Halloween

There are only two days until October 31st, and it's been a very strange Halloween season around here. I suppose that Halloween really SHOULD be eerie and strange, but this one is not eerie and strange because of witches, ghost, goblins and things that go bump in the night. All of those things would be welcome additions to the season. No, this Halloween has been odd for different reasons. It's kind of hard to explain. I guess it's odd mainly because of my old scary enemy...Time.

You see, I loved Halloween as a kid (who didn't?). I also have always enjoyed Halloween as a grown-up--though in sort of different ways. After we had The Little Monsters that old childlike feeling of Halloween as a fun and exciting (and maybe even just a bit scary) night was back. I could enjoy the season all over again through the eyes and experiences of The Little Monsters. From picking out what costumes they would wear, to decorating the house/apartment, to going trick-or-treating and getting all that great candy, it was great to be able to kind of vicariously soak in some of the fun and excitement they were feeling.

Halloween 2012

But a funny thing happened on the way to Halloween 2019. The Little Monsters were suddenly not so little anymore. The Little Monster will turn fourteen in a few weeks and the Tiny Creature is ten. They're at the point where they are kind of aging out of the holiday (The Little Monster more so than the Tiny Creature of course). Up until last year the magic still seemed to be there, even if The Little Monster was about to become a teenager. I remember that the planning for this Halloween started pretty much as soon as the trick-or-treating and sorting of the candy was done last year. The first ideas for this year's costumes were laid on November 1st.


Then Thanksgiving and Christmas rolled around and Halloween was kind of put on the back burner for a while. Once school started in September I reminded the Monsters that Halloween wasn't very far away. When September turned to October I let them know there was only one month left. Then...nothing much happened. The Tiny Creature had some vague costume ideas, but nothing ever really materialized. The Little Monster was too busy with school, activities and friends to really put much thought into Halloween.

Suddenly there was only one week left until the big day and we realized that nobody really had any solid idea what they were going to be on the 31st. The Tiny Creature wanted to purchase a costume--which has traditionally been somewhat verboten in our household. The Monsters have usually done a good job (with a little parental help) of putting together some interesting costumes with stuff we have around the house and a few purchased additions and accessories. But with time getting short the options were getting short as well.

Another difference between this year and Halloweens past is that The Little Monsters simply don't have much free time. We used to read all our Halloween books at bedtime and watch a bunch of Halloween or related shows and movies through the course of October. But between all their homework and activities, and the fact that we generally adhere to a no-screens-during-the-week policy, there simply hasn't been time to watch too much fun stuff to get ready for Halloween. We certainly haven't seen some of our old favorites like "Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein" and "Young Frankenstein" in a long time (it's been years actually, and I'd dare say that they are not really among The Monsters' favorite titles anymore). When there IS some time to watch something they have plenty of other shows that they would prefer to see. And finding the time to watch movies is especially difficult.

But that's not to say that we haven't watched ANYTHING fun this fall. Over the course of the month I've managed to sneak in a few of the shows that have been old Halloween standbys of ours. Because of their schedules not all of these shows have been seen by both Monsters, but we're doing the best we can. Here's a rundown of most of what we've seen so far: The "Ship of Ghouls" episode of "The Love Boat" (with Vincent Price!), the "Trick or Treat" episode of "CHiPs", "The Hazzardville Horror" episode of "The Dukes of Hazzard", the "Fright Night" episode of "The Brady Bunch", the episode of "The Muppet Show" with Vincent Price, the "Treehouse of Horror VI" episode of "The Simpsons", "The Paul Lynde Halloween Special" (featuring KISS!), the cartoon "Spookley the Square Pumpkin" and, of course, "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown". It hasn't been easy squeezing those shows in, and there's still a lot more I wish we could get to. There simply isn't enough time or opportunity to do so.

"CHiPs"

"The Love Boat"

Vincent Price in "The Love Boat"

Vincent Price in "The Muppet Show"

Watching "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown"

While we haven't carved any pumpkins or done much decorating, we have managed to keep up a couple of other traditions. The first is more of a fall thing rather than anything specifically Halloween, but I like to take the Monsters to the grocery store to pick out a couple mini pumpkins to put on our dining room table. It's not a very impressive sight, but for whatever reason it's always a bit of a special thing that we try to do each year around this time. Well, it USED to be kind of special anyway. This year I simply never had an opportunity to take both Monsters, so The Tiny Creature and I went and picked out hers and one for The Little Monster, who had other plans that afternoon.

Our mini pumpkin/gourd dinner table centerpiece

Another activity that became a tradition a few years back (and has even been featured in a few blog posts of their own) is the annual purchase of the seasonal Halloween Oreos (see Halloween Oreos, 2018 Edition and The Overwhelming Onslaught of Oreos). Sweets in general and Oreos in particular are not things we get to bring into our house too often, so getting a package of Oreos kind of counts as a big event. When those Oreos are of the Halloween variety it becomes even more special. For some reason I've generally had a hard time finding Halloween Oreos just before Halloween. It's made for some interesting adventures as I've had to search high and low for them in an effort to not disappoint the Monsters (who am I kidding, I don't want to disappoint MYSELF!). Last year I think I was able to figure out the problem. They actually ship out and start selling the Halloween Oreos in August, a full two months before Halloween. By the time it seems appropriate to actually buy some they tend to be long gone--replaced by the holiday ones in advance of Christmas. This year I noticed the Halloween Oreos in our grocery store early. I waited until later in Spetember to pick up a package, but didn't want to wait too long. Wouldn't you know, this is the year they decided to keep them on the shelves right up until Halloween. Oh well.

Anyway, the finding and purchasing of Halloween Oreos is the first part of our little tradition. The second part is when I put on the aforementioned "Ship of Ghouls" episode of "The Love Boat" as I unveil the sweet treats to The Little Monsters. Just WHY this has become our tradition I'm not exactly sure, but it has. And I'm happy to report that we were able to get the tradition in (with both Monsters present) for at least one more year!

As I started writing this post on October 29th The Tiny Creature and The Wife were out shopping for last minute costume components at a thrift store. It now appears that the Monsters' costumes have finally been finalized. The Little Monster is going to be some sort of angel with wings and a white dress, while The Tiny Creature will be a bag of jelly beans. There's definitely still some work to be done, but hopefully they'll be able to get everything put together by the 31st. Time is getting very short. And it looks like the forecast is calling for rain on Halloween. We're crossing our fingers that we'll be able to get in a good one before we get too soaked. Who knows how many more Halloweens are going to be special ones in our household before everyone is too "grown-up" to enjoy them?

Checking out the new costume components

I mentioned earlier that we haven't done much decorating of our own. That's something I feel kind of bad about. The Little Monsters don't seem to be too bothered by it, but I do remember them enjoying making our apartment look more Halloween-y with fake spider webs and various other spooky decorations. We also have a neat witch door hanging that lights up, but it's in our storage unit and we haven't seen it for six or seven years. I think a nice way to end this post is by reporting that Mother Nature seems to have stepped in to help us out with our decorating and put us in more of a Halloween mood. Recently this giant spider spun a web and took up residence outside The Little Monsters' bedroom window. They were kind of freaked out by it (and it's hard to blame them, it IS a big spider!), but I kind of felt bad about taking the web down and/or killing the spider. It has remained and somehow survived a pretty big storm with a lot of wind and rain a few days ago. Looks like our new "friend" will be with us through Halloween!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!