My wife and I sit around all year and wait for October. We used to over decorate the whole house and make delicious autumnal treats and throw a huge Halloween party every year, but now we have kids and don't have time for such things. We literally, right this second, have a "Ghost Garland" from target that was purchased over a week ago that is only hanging by one side, the other cascading to the dinner table...not because it's fallen, but because we only ever hung one side and then lost interest.
We used to begin watching season two of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (no one watches season one) mid September and would wrap up season seven just before Halloween. It was nice to come home and have your night all planned out for you; make dinner, watch Buffy; fold laundry, watch Buffy; hook up with spouse, pause Buffy. Easy. (Sorry, but is that how you use semi colons?) But now we have kids and we no longer do ANY of the a fore mentioned activities. (again, sorry, is that how you use 'a fore'?)
We used to go to graveyards and take pictures of Crypts and Head Stones
to print out and distress and hang as part of our October Decor. (see
below) 
This last one is Washington Irving's Grave
One year, while living in New York City we found ourselves without a costume and had to whip something up because we wanted to go to the Halloween parade in Greenwich Village. This is what we came up with:
Dr. Dark and Madame Lumiere
(we didn't have to name them, but we did...and we used French)
That's right, take a closer look.
That's all Lindsay's hair.
This was the last time we have dressed up for Halloween...because then...we got kids.
We no longer watch scary movies because the kids now creep into our room and it scares us.
We stopped buying holiday candy because we have kids and they would not eat anything else if they knew we had any.
We never say up past 10:30 (late, pref 9:45) because we have kids and no matter what time we go to bed they are coming for you at 6:45 am...with two nighttime wake ups...each.
It turns out that all the things you can't wait to do as a kid, you really do get to do...until you have kids!
There is something to be said for getting to watch my kids have halloween, but they do it so poorly that it's hardly worth mentioning. Milo is 4 months and rarely has much to contribute...except Exorcist style vomit which he offers up frequently. And Daisy is two and a half and thinks the cheesiest things are scary (ie ghost garland from target). Lindsay and I have perfected our singular mix of Victorian Gothic blended with Savannah Grave Yard with a dash of 1692 Salem Courthouse for our Halloween aesthetic and the kids just don't get it. Which is fine by me, it's a lot of effort to set it all up just to then have some two-and-a-half-year-old wrap the ends of our grey muslin tablecloth around her neck like a cape and tear off tipping the lit candelabra into the piles of Spanish Moss and antique Law Books deliberately scattered on both the table and floor igniting my effortless balance between dilapidated library and spell casters squat.
While it's true I love my children, more then anything, it will be nice when they grow up and we can get back to having fun on Halloween.
I 100% agree with this. I used to imagine all the cool things I would do for my kids during the month of October and now I am too busy working and having a mortgage to do any of this. This is why the internet makes me feel bad about myself as a parent.
ReplyDeleteI made an exquisite Halloween wreath from parts I drove to two stores to get. I spent about two hours shopping, considering, selecting the different looks for this wreath. That evening my kids ate leftovers as I made the wreath. I spray painted, sealed, arranged, re-arranged, hot-glued, hung it on the door, and took pictures of it. My son took one look at our (so far) only decoration and said, "Huh, that's cool, now can we put up the rest of the stuff? Start thinking of the other things we can put up."
ReplyDeleteThe fun does come back. Hang in there, champ.
ReplyDeleteAnd by the time the fun comes back, you won't even need make-up for some great crypt-keeper wrinkles!
ReplyDeleteI'm considering stealing my toddler away for a day so that she can sew a jawa costume for our two-year-old. But that's a lot of effort to put in to something when she'd be just as happy wearing her old worn out clothes and dressing up like a "pirate." Plus, we'll probably be too tired to even go out trick-or-treating anyway.
Kids. They ruin everything, man.
ReplyDeleteThat party in your backyard two years ago remains my favorite Halloween party to date.
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