Halloween has come and gone, and with much less fanfare than is usual in the house of Swingbug. With all that's going on right now, I didn't do much. I mean, really not much. I carved one pumpkin, that I bought at the grocery store no less, and that comprised the whole of the house decorations. I'm pretty sure The Great Pumpkin doesn't show up to the sincerest shopping mart to bring presents to all the good girls and boys, but sometimes, you have to go easy and stay sane.
We hit the Halloween party at the rink. Not surprisingly, Jason is a popular costume with the hockey crowd. We stopped by another party Halloween afternoon to catch up with friends that I somehow see only at this particular party once a year, did the neighborhood trick-or-treat run, and my husband and I watched a semi-spooky movie to close it off. I stayed awake for a whole movie after dark with no knitting in my lap. That's huge.
The kid wanted to be a phoenix this year. My only demand was that he pick something comfortable to wear after last year's headless horseman debacle, so this was something that I could work with. I mutilated a hoody from the thrift shop and made a cape-like set of wings and we were done. We talked about adding feathers and it didn't happen. Ultimately the only one disappointed on that point was the cat. My husband recycled a Marty McFly costume. Very timely.
I pillaged my old costume boxes as neccesary over the week's festivities, such as they were. At the office, I was a jedi knight. ("Of course you are," said the co-workers.) At the roller rink, I was a fairy princess. ("I did not reconnize you in that, and still kind of don't," said the hockey buddies.) And Halloween day, I scraped together a Red Riding Hood out of various bits in the costume box. I was shooting for an older, wiser Red, complete with a wolf pelt and a cross-bow in her basket. ("Totally awesome," proclaimed my nine-year-old. I think we have a winner.)
One advantage to not really decorating for Halloween is that there isn't much clean up. The sewing room was already tidied, so all I had to do was drop the one jack o'lantern to the green waste bin and, abracadabra, it's November. Seems like cheating.
So, on to bigger and better things next year. But for now, keep your heads down out there, turkeys. You're up next.
