I LOVE Halloween! This is the week of Halloween so I'm getting ready. I have no real plans, but I love the weather, the leaves, the colors, the early evenings, the chill in the air and of course...the GREAT PUMPKIN! You cannot enjoy Halloween without watching Charlie Brown and the gang. Once more, Linus messes up Sally's Halloween by telling her of the Great Pumpkin. He really doesn't exist, but the idea is a good one. I remember being a kid and my mom creating some of the most unusual and creative costumes for us that I've ever seen. We never bought costumes, but rather made them from things around the house. Luckily we had a mom who was an artist and could make just about anything. She has such an imagination. For some reason, and don't ask me why, I remember one particular Halloween that was a really good one. My mom painted her fingernails blood red (she almost never had her fingernails painted) and made sloppy joes for dinner that night. I still associate sloppy joes with Halloween. Strange, huh?...the things you remember from childhood. I was a jack-in-the-box that year. I had a clown costume that my mom had made us a few years before and she took a cardboard box, painted it and put cut out Halloween things like cats with spiral tails and jack-o-lanterns on it. She made straps for it to rest on my shoulders while I wore it and of course the lid went up and down. I think it may have been the last Halloween I actually did trick or treating. I was the oldest of five children with the youngest three being significantly younger than me. We always had fun. One year my younger brother, Justin, was dressed as a hobo. He wore our dad's yard work clothes and we stuffed him with rags. We smugged his face with soot and put a bandana tied to a stick from the yard for him to carry. He was ADORABLE!!! It didn't hurt that he was as cute as a button to begin with. He ended up winning the grand prize at our town's Halloween costume contest! He won a silver dollar! He was so cute. It just goes to show that you don't need a lot of money or fancy costumes to do something wonderful. I also just love the colors of Fall and of Halloween - the reds, oranges, golds, blacks and browns. They are so rich and warm to me. my family is coming next week for a pre-Holiday get-together. I'm excited to see my mom, my sister Shawna and her girls as well as my brother Lonnie and his family. I want us to have a great time together. Living in our apartment is going to be a bit tight, but we'll have a nice time regardless. So, Happy Halloween everyone! Watch out for the Great Pumpkin, too. Maybe he does really exist? Whoooooooooo knows?
