Halloween Madness

Halloween was quite the event this year. We spent most of the day prepping - plenty of cleaning and cooking to do, as well as the decorating. (Special thanks to James, who came over early in the afternoon to help with everything, and Todd & Anita, who brought extra decorations and provided all the pictures for this blog!)

It's always fun to see what people come up with for costumes. Unfortunately for me, I can never think of anything clever. Last year, I had to use the grab bag for my costume. (We encourage guests to come dressed for the event, but provide a bag of items in case you're Imagination Challenged, like me.)

Decorating was especially fun, as we used the bare studs and raw framework from the remodel efforts to enhance the atmosphere. Had to keep the cats from trying to eat the fake spiderwebs. =) But, man! All the extra room from removing the fireplace was especially apparent. Much better people flow, and no bottleneck at the food. Yay!

Greg's costume took him almost 30 minutes to do - and was a surprise to even me. He looked like some zombied, strung-out member of an off-Kiss band. Definitely a great costume, but I'm glad it was a wig & paint... My costume was a hat with green & white braids and a tye-dyed t-shirt. Simple, easy to put together, but not very creative. Greg, on the other hand, made at least two trick-or-treaters cry when he answered the door and intoned "braaaaiinnnnssss"...

Every year, I think that next year I'll get the decorations out early, so I can actually enjoy them for more than a few hours. We have bats, a graveyard, and spiderwebs for the yard and walkway, as well as some lighted window decorations too. Even if we didn't do the inside decorations, the rest would be nice to have out for a couple weeks. Maybe next year...

We recently invested in RockBand Beatles for the Wii and brought it out for the party. Had lots of fun playing it with my family last Christmas, and I was excited for this one since I already know lots of the songs. Granted, I apparently have absolutely no coordination or rhythm (I scored 19% on guitar for one of the easy songs - *lots* of room for improvement!), but it was a blast and I do fine as a backup singer.

All-in-all, it was a successful event. Plenty of food and beverage for all, a few slightly terrified kiddies (mollified with several extra handfuls of candy), and bloodshed (but only Greg's - side-note: a footrace backwards in the middle of a cold night when you're three sheets to the wind isn't the greatest idea, as it can lead to a nasty bump on the head, some bleeding, and a bit of road rash...).