It's Halloween!!! My favorite month, my favorite season (Autumn is BEAUTIFUL in Utah when it doesn't snow!!) And my favorite holiday! I usually spend the whole month watching scary movies, reading scary books, and trying to scare the pants off myself.
I live in the Utah suburbs which means I'm surrounded by children. There are over 70 kids on my street alone...and my street only has 18 houses. As you can imagine, Halloween is C-R-A-Z-Y here!!! We usually get between 200-500 trick-or-treaters, though numbers have been dwindling lately since my Dad started visiting on Halloween to terrorize the children. He dresses up as a scary monster wearing stilts. I imagine he resembles what a ringwraith from The Lord of the Rings would look like if they took their hoods off.
He's about 9 feet tall with the stilts on and usually leans against the house looking like a decoration until the older kids come by and then he slowly moves away and starts following them. They try to run, but with the stilts, he can cover about 4 feet per step. Being chased by a 9 foot tall ringwraith and the embodiment of nightmares has to be pretty traumatizing. My dad's been using this tactic since I was about 8 years old and once threatened to greet all my dates that way. Luckily he didn't follow through.
The candy is ready to go, the DVR is set to record Ghost Hunters Live, Dad is sanding his stilts, and the pumpkins are carved (see pics below). It's going to be a great!
So...what are you doing for Halloween?
This is our dog, Pippin's, pumpkin.
This is Pippin.
My 30 year old husband's pumpkin. I think he loves Nintendo more now than he did in 1990.
And I'm obsessed with the Mercy Thompson novels by Patricia Briggs. Mercy can shift into a coyote, hence the coyote paw. :)
That's it! I might have to stop by just to see your dad!
ReplyDeleteCute pumpkins!! I'd love it if it snowed here! We're still sweating here in Houston, and I have two azalea plants that are blooming again... it's freaky.
ReplyDeleteI'm still not totally sure what to be for Halloween... we're going to a costume party so I'd better figure it out by then!!
Autumn-You totally should! He'll be here on Sunday though, and I'm not sure how long he'll be out this year since most people will be trick-or-treating on Saturday.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kristin! We just got back from New Orleans where it was 85 all week and I'm sure missing that now. I can't believe you have azaleas blooming again!
ReplyDeleteA costume party sounds fun! Let me know what you decide to be! :) My husband is trying to decide what to be for his work costume party. My vote is for him to dress up as Mario to match his pumpkin.
Wow, with all of those kids around, do you ever run out of candy?
ReplyDeleteHi, LM! We haven't run out of candy yet, but it's hard to figure out how many kids we'll have each year. We usually spend about $100 on candy to make sure we have enough. We always have left overs and the neighbor kids come over to get more candy for months. :)
ReplyDeleteAng,
ReplyDeleteI didn't know you had a blog!!!! How awesome!
Also, that's so funny that your dad does that! And I know I already commented on your fb photos, but those jack-o-lanterns are awesome!!
Kala!
ReplyDeleteYes! I have a blog! I think I follow yours, don't I? I'll have to check...
Thanks for the compliment on our pumpkins! I love carving them every year. I wish you were closer so we could get our pumpkins from you! Didn't you ever stop by my house when we were in junior high or high school and see my dad chasing people? When I was a kid we used to get tons of trick-or-treaters, then he started dressing up and chasing them and people stopped coming to our house as often. :) He tends to move around each Halloween so people never know where to expect him.