Halloween 2012 Recap and Apology!

Well the New Year has begun for some.  All Hallow's Eve sets the great wheel of time in motion and with it the old year dies and passes away, while a new year full of opportunities is born.  So with any New Year, I feel I should reflect on what I learned.  So I will give my Halloween Recap in today's post.  And this is a long post because I need to provide myself a record of this year.  Why am I recapping now?  Well because for me this October was somewhat of a FAIL, at least in some respects.  For instance, before the month ever arrived, I was already swamped with obligations involving work, school and volleyball.  I had intended to do lots of crafting and prepping for the upcoming Fall season during the hot summer months but alas the summer was wrought with needy family members, sickness and relentless volleyball activities.  So I got nothing done and was already starting out behind schedule. :o(

I must also now confess and apologize for being a complete failure with the Halloween Countdown this year.  I never want to skip out on it because it is an important part of my Fall ritual, but this year I was unprepared and quite a failure.  Actually, I thought I was doing good, with 5-6 posts already done and ready to go.  However,  I had to use those while on vacation since I can't work from up there.  Also, I've had a bit of a time getting used to the new blogger changes which I do not like.  So when I got home from vacation, I had no posts done, and VERY LITTLE time to work on them.  Usually, I have at least SOME time, to get something whipped out each day....but not this year.  It was very difficult to find the time, and that was causing me a good deal of unhappiness and anxiety.  So there are many days with no posts, and all I can do is apologize for coming up short.  I vow to do better next year.  I am going to prepare a couple of posts each month and save them, so they are ready to go for next year.  I had so much stuff to share too, lots of great photos from my travels, poems and art, etc.  So I hope that I will be more on my game next Halloween season, and I hope that I can be forgiven!

I don't know about the rest of you, but September is almost more fun than October for me.  September is Pre-Halloween....the build-up!  The month of anticipation and preparation.  But I was barely able to do anything because of all the other requirements coming from the school and sports.  I've never been a big sports fan because I'm not athletic, but this year I grew to loathe them!  They truly believe that the sport is the ONLY thing that should matter in your life. So needless to say, our annual Autumn trip to New England in the middle of the VB season did NOT go over well.  But I told them last year that it was an annual event for us and we would ALWAYS try to take it at that same time.  So that drew in some negative energy.  And as a result, I am seriously rethinking our involvement. 

(I don't know about other folks, 

but this is what I see when I look at a Volleyball!)

Then the Florida Highschool Sports Association, in all their UN-infinite wisdom, scheduled a play-off game on Halloween night!  NOT because the week was packed with games and they had no choice....NO, there were NO OTHER GAMES scheduled for any of the 4 other days that week....NONE!  Just one on Halloween night!  WHO DOES THAT CRAP!  Obviously there was someone who dislikes Halloween making those decisions, and they decided to ruin it for everyone.  I intend to write them a very stern letter about this too.  So my son was upset because he thought he'd have to miss Halloween for his sister's game.  But we agreed that she'd have to go on her own with the team instead of us taking her. I can't tell you the negative effect this had on my mindset this year.  I was so bummed, that I almost couldn't get out of my funk to even pretend to enjoy anything else.  But on a positive note (depending on your perspective), as the fickle finger of fate would have it....her team lost when they shouldn't have, and they were out of the playoffs just before Halloween!  So the rest of us were quasi-happy, and we all got to be home for Halloween.

But with all my good plans, I got pretty much NOTHING accomplished this whole season.  I did put up the Apothecary and most everything inside, but not until the first of October.  I usually have it all up by Labor Day.  And the front yard had nothing in it at all until 3 days before Halloween.  That doesn't usually happen either. So I shall take stock of what I was able to accomplish and enjoy.  We did go to New England and Zipline, and the weather was so cold; there were actually a few small snow flurries while we were there.  We did go to Salem, (aka HalloweenTown) and  because we went later in the season, the color down there was really beautiful.  We went to the farms and ate apple cider donuts, fresh apples, hot spiced cider and pumpkin treats a-plenty.  We watched several of my favorite Halloween shows, including Disney's Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The Halloween Tree, The Good Witch and a few others.  We had lots of autumn breakfasts filled with pumpkin donuts and pumpkin coffee.  We got to do a small 'Corn Maze' and do some small scale 'Punkin' Chunkin' too! 

AND....for the first time in a while, I was actually able to carve my own pumpkin this year!  In years past, we always have a big Pumpkin Carving Party which means I am working my butt off attending to the needs of all the party guests.  And as such, I am unable to sit down and actually enjoy the festivities myself.  That's the burden I choose to bare as the Official Halloween Cheer-Meister in my area.  And with the kids' new school schedule, and the relentless onslaught of our daughter's Fall Volleyball schedule, we have been unable to host a big party for the last two years.  The high school actually scheduled all the Homecoming activities for the last week before Halloween this year, with a Saturday night Homecoming Dance on the night we usually have our party.  CURSE THEM!  And of course our daughter wanted to go, which made a big party impossible!  (Have I mentioned how incredibly distraught I am over the havoc the school continues to wreak on my month long Halloween Celebration?!)  So there was no party of course, but there were a few days left before Halloween.    And the weather here was quite chilly and autumn perfect, so we made hot Potato Bacon Cheese soup and carved our Pumpkins...just the 4 of us!  So I actually got to get my hands down in the pumpkin guts and carve that baby myself, which was a complete joy for me!  I sprinkled their lids with cinnamon, brought them all inside, and lit them up to add to the ambience.  Here they are...nothing spectacular, but it sure was fun!  (There are only 3 because my husband just helped us with the hard parts that we didn't want to do...ha!)

And finally, All Hallow's Eve was upon us....WAY too quickly, but it arrived at last.  We had 14 family members over to the house.  The weather was fantastic this year and was cool enough for Chili and cornbread muffins.  We had pumpkin chocolate chip bread, spiced cider, ghost cupcakes, and smores. The kids were decked out as zombies and a witch doctor.  The Golf Cart got a few new additions this year....notably, one of my Skeleton crew decided to hitch a ride on the roof....yes, beware of hitchhiking ghosts skeletons!  And he was quite the talk of the busy streets.  We even had people taking pictures of us which was a little disconcerting...ha!

Also we were told, that next to the Haunted House, we were the best house in the area and people were stopping to take photos of themselves and their kids in front of our Graveyard, Man-eating Spider and Lord of the Harvest Scarecrow.  So that fills my wicked lil' heart with much happiness and makes it all worth it!  :o)

We live in the back of the neighborhood.  And what's so magical about our little area is that the day before Halloween you'll see very little stuff in any of the yards (except ours), and the streets are empty except for the kids who live back here. Sometimes I even wonder to myself if this is the year that no one will show up or bother with Halloween.  But it never fails....a Magical Halloween Wind blows in overnight and come 7:00 pm on All Hallow's Eve, this place has mysteriously transformed into Halloween Central.  I am SO LUCKY to live right here.  And I'm not talking about just our neighborhood as a whole, which is really huge....but back in our section, where the night really comes alive...or DEAD!.  Yes, THIS is where the Magic Happens!!!  I've said it a bunch, but my neighbors never disappoint.  And our area's reputation has grown so big, that we now have city police posting no parking signs on the grass down the main entrance into our 'hood'!  

Yes, they come from far and wide.  Masses of people....the 'nubile young', the 'roudy raunchy teens' and the 'older than dirt' alike!  They come in by car, foot, bike, tractors, hayrides and this year....even a BUS!  I kid you not, a small bus towing a hay wagon filled with people behind it....showed up to trick or treat.  Part of the draw is that SO many houses decorate and give out good candy.  Part of the draw is the throngs of costumed revelers themselves, and then part of the draw is the house on the last street, that puts on a REALLY GREAT small scale Haunted House, with props and costumed characters to rival Universal.  In fact, I'm pretty sure they must have ties to somewhere...cause those props cannot be found at the Spirit stores.  They do tons of lighting, music and fog out front, and the scares start in the yard and go through the downstairs of the house and back out.  I LOVE THOSE PEOPLE!  They are my heros!  It is SO MUCH work, and they do it without fail every year, and it's all free!  They let masses of complete strangers into their home...(I'd never do that...uh uh, no way!)  And they do it all for the love of Halloween!  And because they do....I LOVE THEM!  

And can you believe, that we don't even know them personally?  I have no idea who they are. They live right around the corner; so you'd think I'd go over and introduce myself to them.  But I choose not to know them, because I prefer the mystery of it all.  I like how it's a regular house of people the rest of the year, but on Halloween Night, and ONLY Halloween Night....it magically transforms into a Haunted House!  So I choose to let them remain a mystery to me.  And this year, as we went through the house, they actually got me pretty good....someone came from behind, and scared me so, that I screamed out loud and almost mowed down the kids trying to get out the door....ha!  :o)

So as I reflect on this past Halloween, I am torn by the emotions I've felt.  Unhappiness at nothing working out like I'd planned....tempered and soothed by the sheer joy of the night itself, which was nothing short of Spooktacular as always.  And in the end, I guess Halloween Night itself does trump everything else when it is as perfect as it was.  So with that, I will end this excruciatingly long post that was admittedly done to help me reconcile my mixed feelings about my favorite month of the year.  I do hope everyone had a most Magical Halloween, thanks for letting me share mine with you! :o)   
(All images © Wendy Amdahl (all rights reserved)

Happy New Year

Well HELLO my spooky friends! And a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all! Oh how I've missed you while I've been away. As you may recall from my last post on 11/11/11....I was awaiting transport from my mother ship to return me to the planet from whence I was spawned, and said celestial excursion was to have unfolded at precisely 11:11 pm. And as you can surmise, I have henceforth returned to this great green orb you all call home, to enlighten you to the myriad of wonders in the worlds beyond. And to deliver to you the mucho elusive 'meaning of life'!

Sadly....my transport into the crevices of outer space never transpired. Nope....11:11 came and went with not so much as a single 'bat signal' from my mother planet. Zippo, zilch.....nada! Quite frankly the date itself was SO uneventful, that I could not even bring myself to crawl onto my blog and confess that I'm still stuck on this 'bat-shit' crazy planet with the rest of you. I just hoped for more, ya know?

But alas, I've been left with nothing to look forward to now. Unless of course you want to count that Dec. 2012 Mayan Calendar DOOMSDAY thingy, and the end of the world as we know it! But honestly....who, but only the most miserably downtrodden and morose of us, would really be looking forward to a date like THAT?!!!

So, it looks like it's back to the same ole', same ole' grind of life as I knew it. And the only good thing I can say, is that with the dawning of a new year, comes the renewed sense of anticipation and optimism that comes with counting down the months to Hallowe'en once again. So now that I've gotten those other pesky year ending holidays out of the way....I am looking forward to kickin' around Halloweentown with you guys and ghouls.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season....whichever holidays you chose to celebrate! Looking forward to the New Year ahead!

Oh, and I also wanted to share the most bizarre strory to hit Hollywood in a while, in case you haven't been watching the news coverage. You're not gonna believe it, but apparently Beyoncé sought the services of a 'Witch' in her not too distant past, and as we all know....magic ALWAYS comes with a price! Looks like it's time for the new mother songstress to pay up! Watch the video below for all the juicy details! ;o)



Blue Ivy Taken By Evil Witch Who Gave Beyoncé Her Beautiful Singing Voice