Halloween!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Remember the 24 hours of entertainment? Well I forgot to mention something very important; on my drive to Council Grove I decided to listen to Manheim Steamrollers Halloween II CD. This inspired me to pull out the purple and orange plastic tub which contains my Halloween decorations!

As I was unwrapping breakable decorations, I started remembering who I was with and where I was when I found these decorations. Come with me while I take you down Halloween Memory Lane.

Lets start with my newly acquired console with record player, freshly decorated for Halloween.




The green and purple foam haunted castle is one of the many acquisitions I obtained last year when I went post-Halloween sale shopping with my good friend Anne and her wonderful mom. I actually forgot that I made this purchase until I pulled it out of the tub.



Here is my “Santana” black cat which was another of last years acquisitions. I didn't forget about it. Anne and I did some pre-shopping and we found this in Jo-Anns and it plays Santana's Black Magic Woman. I HAD to have it but it was too expensive. Jo-Anns was our last stop that shopping day and I was sure they were all out of this great toy/decoration and that it would still be to expensive. Fortunately they weren't, the price was just right, and he came home with me! Tzani isn't sure she likes him but now that he has been played several times, she seems resigned to deal with him until he goes back into the tub until next year.



This particular acquisition is a complete loss to my memory bank. It sort of made the opening of decorations like Christmas or my birthday because I didn't know what it was. In addition, I'm not sure where I got it. My first thought was maybe it was a gift from Anne but I don't think so...... perhaps I bought this at that closing-out sale I went to last spring. Irregardless, it's making it's debut on the console.

On to the ceramic trick-or-treat bag, this was actually a surprise gift from my mother when I lived in Colorado. Shocking isn't it??? I look at this bag and I have to touch it to make sure it's real. This is a reminder that my mother does have good days (although infrequent and rarer than finding an endangered species in the wild) and occasionally I get a reminder that she does in fact "love" me.

This is one of my “favorite” decorations. The first year I was back in Kansas working on my MS (before the by-pass to PhD), Anne made the shocking and horrifying discovery that while I was in Colorado the person I was dating had helped kill my Halloween spirit. This was the first year that I went shopping with Anne and her whole family (minus her dad) for Halloween. I found this and I had to have it. It makes me think of the 1920's and has a hint of class that I feel the rest of my decorations lack. I love it so much that it was a part of my permanent decor in my Manhattan apartment. You could see it directly to your left as you walked into my apartment.

The button came with a Halloween card that Anne gave me that first year back in Kansas . I love the button as well. The lights on the Witch's motorcycle light up and flash. Every time I look at it, I smile, and I think about the love Anne has for me and I'm grateful that she helped me find my Halloween Spirit again; I really can't thank her enough for doing so.


This plastic, recycled Trick-or-Treat bag is an acquisition from this year. I saw it in Dillon's the other day and since it has a spider on it I decided to bring it home with me. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the bag but then I had an epiphany.


Last Christmas, I discovered that Anne collects The Night Before Christmas books. I think this is a very interesting collection and I thought about that for awhile. A few months ago, I was with Anne and family and I bought my first Halloween shirt and I told her I was thinking about starting a new tradition of buying a Halloween related book as part of my Halloween traditions and when I was in the Dusty Bookshelf this week, I did so. Now the Trick-or-Treat bag holds my only (for now) Halloween book but I'm sure that before I know it, I will need another bag to hold my Halloween books!

I realized while I was decorating that the decorating is NOT just about getting ready for the holiday but about the memories that are associated with the decorations. I'm even looking forward to Thanksgiving which is when I traditionally exchange the Halloween decorations for the Yule decorations. Yes, I hold on to Halloween as LONG as I can and being a graduate student allows me the excuse of being too busy to do it before then. Additionally, I'm considering decorating for another holiday, perhaps.....Ostara (Easter for those non-pagan inclined)!

I hope that you all have happy memories associated with your decorations, regardless of the holiday and what you may call that holiday.

Before I close this blog segment out...... perhaps you are wondering about the first picture. The ceramic haunted house was a Halloween gift from a former friend and roommate from many years ago. It is another of my favorite decorations not because of the memories of that friend but because of where it's been and that it survived the "too-much stuff exodus!" The group of witches, also survived the "too-much stuff exodus" and I have had them for several years. Actually, I think I bought them from a dollar store when I lived with the previously mentioned roommate in Salina.