And so the holiday traditions begin...
Despite the fact that E is away this entire week on a conference, I still wanted to start our holiday traditions from the beginning. And this is despite the fact that she can't really partake in any of the festivities yet. I guess, right now, I'm doing all of this for the soul purpose of letting my holiday freak flag fly. Now that I have a child to share in the joy of the holidays, that sucker is no longer going to be flown at half-staff.
Before Finn, I have always flown my holiday freak flag. Some holidays, the flag was a lot higher on the pole. And some holidays, it was just pulled out, shook out, and then put back away. But I have to say (and I hope that E isn't reading this -- he may not come back from his conference!) my holiday freak flag has NEVER flown at full staff. Oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy!!!
For example, Halloween... I have always put up my Halloween decorations. My Halloween decorations are a hodgepodge of things that I stole from my Mom when I went away to college, things that she has sent me in holiday-freak-flag care packages, or things that I have purchased on my own. The majority of my decorations fall into the first two categories. Now, I have a reason to make the house festive -- so, category #3 might go up a little.
But since I moved out of my parents' house, I have only carved pumpkins once. And the reason that we carved pumpkins that year was because a guy that E worked with won one of those "Guess-the-weight-of-the-pumpkin-and-you-win-the-pumpkin" contest. He won the pumpkin and didn't know what to do with it, so he gave it to E. Let me tell you -- I've only carved a 99 pound pumpkin once. Never again.
Now the annual pumpkin carving can commence! Another Halloween tradition that I haven't partaken in in many years -- trick-or-treating. I was just talking to my mom yesterday about trick-or-treating. With Superstorm Sandy hitting the Cleveland area (over 100,000 people are still without power since Monday & cleaning up downed trees -- but Cleveland is a walk in the park compared to New York & Jersey. Everyone on the East Coast is in our thoughts), they have postponed our trick-or-treating from Halloween night (Wednesday) to this upcoming Sunday. Originally, E was pretty upset that he was going to be away for Halloween. So after the conversation with Mom, I think that we are going to go trick-or-treating -- if only for 3-4 houses. Holstein Henrietta rises again!!! I think that we might even dress Munk up in a costume and come with us -- Bishop is getting too old and doesn't wear the humiliation as well as Munk does.
Putting my holiday freak flag up another notch higher are pumpkin patches & Halloween parties. We went to a pumpkin patch this year (which really wasn't a pumpkin patch, but good enough for an infant -- I'll have to start searching for a real pumpkin patch in the upcoming years). No Halloween parties this year -- at least that I could attend. She did have a Halloween party at daycare. She was able to eat a cupcake and she wore her Holstein Henrietta costume again. I'm not sure if any of the other babies in her room dressed up. She was the only one in costume when I came that evening to pick her up. And holy tired baby, Batman! She was exhausted from all the hullabaloo that she napped for me for over two hours when we got home. I woke the poor girl up so she wouldn't be up for me all night. Another Cleveland tradition that I'm very excited to take her to (next year) is Boo at the Zoo! Boo at the Zoo is where the Cleveland Zoo decorates for Halloween and opens late (6-9pm). You buy tickets in advance and bring your little one dressed in costume to see all the spooky displays (not really as it is geared towards a younger audience) and all the zoo animals. The Zoo hosts the event for 8 nights and some of the nights sell out -- it's a very popular event in the Cleveland area.
The one holiday freak flag event that is going to be a part of our annual tradition which I didn't even THINK about until it was too late -- was watching "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" on television. Now, I know that I can (and probably WILL) buy the DVD, but there is something special about the anticipation of watching the television show in prime time. I remember as a kid, getting overly excited to see Charlie Brown and there was also my favoritest of favoritest Halloween specials -- Garfield's Halloween (I WILL be finding that on DVD and buying it, so we will watch that every year as well -- multiple times). In fact, I think that I have Garfield's Halloween Special actually memorized from start to finish (I watched it THAT many times).
I hope that everyone had a Happy Halloween and I hope that you all let your holiday freak flags fly loud & proud!! Happy Halloween!!!!
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