Happy Halloween 2017

Happy spookiest day of the year, my dears!

First, I need to announce the winner of the drawing from last Wednesday’s blog about Halloween costumes. I got such a kick out of your stories. Thank you for sharing them. You are a brave and generous bunch. Just know that the winner was chosen by a random number generator, and not by comment content.

And the winner is…Lily Smith! Lily, please drop me an email at laura@laurabenedict.com so I can send you your books.

Books on the way to Lily–plus a copy of DEAD ENDS

 

My seriously lazy electric jack o’lantern. I have actual pumpkins but haven’t touched them, darn it

Gosh, I miss living in a place with trick-or-treaters, and having little trick-or-treaters at home. I’ve never been one of those people who thinks Halloween is Satan’s birthday, or is anything but a bit of made-up fun. It’s a delightful tradition, and I’ve been pleased to see the post circulating on Facebook about being kind to trick-or-treaters who might be a bit older, or a little different.

One of my favorite Halloween memories is of taking our daughter trick-or-treating dressed like a pumpkin when she was about 18 months old. We were visiting my parents where they lived in Poquoson, Virginia, and the night was filled with laughter and excited children. She was fascinated. And the grown-ups got to eat all the candy! There were so many more fun memories to come, especially after her little brother was born. A life is made up of single days, single memories.

Owl with book and swirly pumpkin

 

LEGO Haunted House–my son finished putting it together for me. It’s displayed all year round out of the cats’ reach. I’ve put it on a lower table, but we can’t open it. There was already a game of cat hockey with one of the tumble weeds. Nina won.

 

There’s something undeniably creepy about this pumpkinhead

 

The squirrel and this pumpkin get to stay around all fall

 

She’s my favorite bat queen

9 thoughts on “Happy Halloween 2017”

  1. Priscilla says:

    I’m not much into adult Halloween parties. (Parties are uncomfortable. I claim that means I’m an introvert.) I think the cute, clever, funny trick-or-treaters are the BEST part of Halloween. It’s kind of disappointing that the trend in our area is more toward trunk-or-treating. It means we get about 2 trick-or-treaters. There was a time when we got over 100.

    1. Laura Benedict says:

      There has been a terrible decline in door-to-door trick-or-treaters, it’s true. I can see both sides of the issue. For me, it felt like a big risk to take my kids door-to-door, but it was so fun. We usually did a bit of both–running from house to house and trunk-or-treating. Either way, we always ended up with WAY too much candy.

  2. skyecaitlin says:

    Happy Halloween and congratulations. Lily! Laura, your decorations are wonderful, and we don’t get trick or treaters in my complex.

    1. Laura Benedict says:

      I’m sorry to hear you have no trick-or-treaters, Skye. We will all just have to be grownups together. Boo!

      1. skyecaitlin says:

        I ate chocolate ad watched Halloween!

        1. Laura Benedict says:

          Perfect combination! I would’ve preferred to watch a spooky film, but my son and husband are crazy about Stranger Things. It’s definitely a good show.

          1. skyecaitlin says:

            I will have to search for Stranger Things. Halloween was on AMC or TCM; it was really scary; I remember seeing it with my husband when we were dating and he got scared.

          2. Laura Benedict says:

            When my husband and I were dating, we watched The Haunting on the teeny tiny television in my apartment, huddled together on the floor. We were both terrified but had a great time, and I knew we were meant to be together forever.

          3. skyecaitlin says:

            Believe it or not, Laura, that was on just after Halloween, and what a cute story.

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