The Ghost of Halloween Future

Halloween kind of snuck up on us this year. Not only were we neck deep in getting Daniel ready to go throughout September, but Malia decided she wanted to be a cowgirl for Halloween which meant I did not need to sew a costume. She already had a hat, some jeans and a stick horse so the only thing we needed to do was buy a plaid shirt and find some cowboy boots at the D.I. And Matthew is in middle school now with means no class party and no trick or treating. He just wore a Santa hat and made a name tag that read, “Honorable Judge Christmas.” So yeah. Things were very low key this time around. The only decorations we even got out were our teal pumpkin (the food allergy color) and one other porch pumpkin. We didn’t even make it to the pumpkin patch.

I did, however, still come up with a fun Halloween dinner. Matthew wasn’t even sure that was going to happen, but I have never let them down and this year was no different. We ate some delicious sloppy monsters with a side of roasted ogre eyes and the traditional brain Jello. The brain was pretty squishy because I forgot to make it the day before and a few hours in the fridge was not quite enough to make it a nice solid brain, but it was still tasty. Jello is pretty tough to muck up after all.

With our kids getting older, I know that Halloween is one of the holidays that will continue to be less and less of a production each year. So maybe this year was indicative of how things will be in years to come. As an adult, I’m not big on the dressing up and neither Kevin nor I like haunted houses or scary movies, so as our kids grow up we really might just abandon the Halloween festivities (except for opening the door for the next generation of trick or treaters and the ritual viewing of a few choice episodes of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”). But who knows? Maybe when I’m old and gray and Kev and I are empty nesters, I’ll still be making mummy dogs or spaghetti and eyeballs. I do enjoy that part of the holiday!