I like it more each year

When I was very little I dressed up and trick or treated a couple of times. From what I remember, I enjoyed it. But my family stopped celebrating Halloween when I was in preschool, I think. When I was still in elementary school and middle school, I remember hating Halloween season because all my classmates and friends would talk endlessly about their costumes and their Halloween plans and I just sat there silently. The days right after Halloween were the worst - I was so jealous watching my friends with buckets and pillowcases full of candy. As I got older, I became mostly apathetic about Halloween.

Then I moved to Utah to go to school. I remember seeing all the billboards (there are tons of them!) for haunted houses, corn mazes, and costume shops and laughing with my roommate (and high school friend), Emily. As a non-native Utahn - with an outside perspective, I have to say that Utahns really get into Halloween. REALLY. It's kind of strange. And then I decided that I needed to take a side - no more fence sitting for me - and that I wasn't just apathetic about Halloween, but that I officially didn't like it. It wasn't the holiday for me. I don't like dressing up, I detest painting my face (some weird psychological thing from when I was a kid... I don't even like carnival face painting. It embarrasses me. It's weird, but who knows? When I figure it out, I'll let you know.), I hate the gory side of it, and I get scared way to easily anyways, so no need to do extra things to freak myself out.

Then I married Eric. And I suppose if you're looking at me marrying Eric in the light of "enjoyment of Halloween", that is the greatest irony ever. (But if you look at me marrying Eric in the light of everything else, it is the most awesome thing ever! :))

My family doesn't celebrate Halloween. His family goes all out for Halloween.

I hate Halloween. He loves, loves, LOVES it.

Ironic, no?

Eric loves Halloween a lot. It's a definite competitor right up there with Christmas for his favorite holiday. If it didn't sound evil :), I'm pretty sure he would admit that it is his favorite holiday. He loves dressing up (face painting is a must), he loves trying to get scared and reveling in the spooky, creepy stuff, he is a dry ice wizard (seriously, you should see the things that boy can do with dry ice) and loves decorating and going all out.

Well, recognizing how important Halloween is to Eric, I've tried (I really have) to be a supportive wife year after year when Halloween comes around. And each year, I think I get a little better. I've really tried to make big strides the last couple of years after really learning just how much it means to him. After a very successful Halloween last night, I've come to the conclusion that I like it a little more each year. :) We really had a blast this weekend celebrating Halloween. As the evening was winding down last night, Eric and I both turned to each other at different points and excitedly burst out, "This has been a lot of fun!"

We kicked things off with Eric's parents annual Halloween Party on Friday night. I was a witch, Eric was either a half of a ring wraith or half of a mummy :), but mostly he was a student who's going crazy with his workload(!), and Elena and Lily were ladybugs. Like I said, Eric's parents go all out and we had an amazing Halloween spread of pumpkin stew, bony fingers, witches brew, a "meathead" (it was so gross and so awesome all at the same time :)), and Frankenstein cupcakes. We had a blast laughing our heads off with everyone (the Sound Effect Game and Nacho Libre impressions) and playing games.

On Saturday, we had plans to get a little trick or treating in ourselves and to also hopefully play host to some trick or treaters. Our house was decked out (we got some awesome decorations from a friend of my mom) with orange Halloween lights, spider webs, a flickering black candelabra, spooky lit up trees, a bubbling cauldron (dry ice), and several very awesome pumpkins. We had about four trick or treaters. Oh well. :)

It was raining like crazy about the time that we were planning on getting started with our trick or treating, so we decided to wait it out for a bit to see if it stopped. Here are our little trick or treaters:

Lily was pretty much the cutest little ladybug in the history of the world. It was a fitting costume because we always call her our "little Lily bug".

Elena decided that she wanted to be Princess Belle. She cracked us up when we were trick or treating, people would say, "Bye Elena" and she would turn around and say, "No, call me Belle."

While we were waiting, Elena put herself down for a nap. This new chemo is starting to hit her.

And Lily had some fun playing around with Dad and Mom.

Then it was Lily's turn for a nap. Elena woke up shortly after that and our Chinese food arrived and we had a picnic in the living room. Again, this new chemo is hitting Elena and she didn't really eat much - her appetite was way down. It always gets me after she has been on steroids and wants to eat everything. She was however very interested in the fortune cookies. :) I was a very, very happy lady because after years of searching, we FINALLY found a Chinese place in Utah that has the right kind of BBQ pork! :)

The rain cleared up and we decided that we had better head out. We had to wake Lily up from her nap:

Is it bad that Eric and I laugh when we see this picture? :)

Ready to go!

It only took about two houses for Elena to decide that she LOVED trick or treating. After each house, she'd turn to us and ask excitedly, "And now we go to the next house?!" It was pretty cute!

A dainty little princess. :)

We went to about fifteen houses - just in a little loop around our neighborhood - but Eric had to carry Elena after about five houses. Darn that chemo. When she started getting tired, she said, "Oh, I am tired. I think I need to go home and take a nap." :) Sweet girl. But, she was out there doing it and she loved it! So, I'd say it was a success.

Elena with her loot. She was one happy lady!

Lily was very cute when we were out trick or treating. A couple of people offered her candy and even though she's (obviously) not eating candy yet, we thought she might like to grab it from the bowl (since she loves grabbing everything) and hold it. We'd let her lean in to grab it and she always went for Butterfingers. It was pretty funny. She was happy as a clam with a Butterfinger in one hand and a sucker in the other. About half way through, she dropped the Butterfinger and started working on opening the sucker. When we got home, she sat very quietly with her back to us for about ten minutes working on the sucker. She never got it quite open. Next year, baby. :)

It was such a fun night!

Happy Halloween!