Monday, October 01, 2007


October is Here!

Simply put, I love October! I have loved this month since I was a little girl; really almost favored it above my birthday. I love the slight nip in the air and the coloring leaves; the pumpkins you see everywhere at fruitstands, and the sudden urge to make something cinnaminy (it's a word) in the kitchen. I'm not a crafty person, but in October, the Brenda (my mother) comes out in me and I'm the most fun mom in the world. Pumpkin shaped sugar cookies are traditions in our house in October as well as roasting pumpkin seeds after carving our Jack-o-Lantern, which we will research our favorite face for two weeks before we actually carve our victim pumpkin. We also will check out a book on custumes and look into making our costumes for the big night. Last year, Corin was an Indian, Silas was Robin Hood, and Felix was a lion (I did not make Felix's costume- Crissy Sharp lent me Brody's old costume). I was Red Riding Hood, Anne of Green Gables, and on any given day in October, spooky lady with black shirt and overdone black eyeliner.

Why the love? My sister's birthday is in October, about a week before Halloween, and her birthday parties when we were children were Halloween themed, you know, black and orange balloons and chocolate cake with candy corn. There were a couple of years that we had a Halloween party in the garage with dunking for apples, costumes, and a giant stuffed man sitting on a lawn chair. I was a witch (before it became politically incorrect for Christians) for several years in a row, a costume my mother made and I remember her painting a star on one cheek and a moon on the other. My sister was always a princess with this fabulous pointed cone hat with this pink chiffony thing coming out the back. I remember one year that my sister and I were waiting at the corner of our street waiting for people to start coming to the party when a large black woman starting waving at us from a block away and calling our names. My sister and I looked at each frantically and started sprinting to our house. We breathlessly told our mother what happened and she smiled a half smile and said "really?". While we watched, the woman rounded the corner and walked the short distance to our house, calling our names. It was my grandmother, dressed as a perfect replica of Aunt Jemima. I was a little nervous of her the whole night. We were never really allowed to go to a lot of houses for trick or treating, but one year I remember going to Southern Oaks (THE neighborhood to trick or treat in, rumored to give regular-sized candy bars) and trick or treating with my Aunt Cheryl and my mom, with my cousins and sister. So fun. November 1st was always a let down for me, much the same way as December 26th is. As I got older, I still loved dressing up (I was a punk rocker chick when I was 12-1987, a ghost bride when I was 14, and a Star Trek chick when I was in college) and I dress up with my kids now, enduring much teasing from my husband. Tease away!

I had October planned for school before September and plan to study Edgar Allen Poe and Martin Luther, talk about Edvard Grieg, go to the Pumpkin Patch and Boo at the Zoo, and cook up spooky looking, fun things to eat. Monster Pizzas, finger hotdogs with real-looking fingernails, vomit dip, potion punch, and spider cupcakes are all fun things to make. Recipes to come on a later post. It's gonna be great. Let the fun begin!


8 comments:

Brenda said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Brenda said...

Soooo when dad and I come to visit can we go to the Pumpkin Patch, and "Boo to the Zoo" sounds fun and of course the Botanical Gardens should be on the list. I love shopping in Birmingham - you know the cute little shops that the guys are not overly fond of....can we go huh? huh? love you!

Amy said...

October is also my favorite month! Keith and I got married in October...THE best month of the year to be married!! The weather is postively awesome and I just love, love to be outside in it! It also reminds me of my favorite Papa, and makes me miss him lots.
ELijah talks about trunk-or-treat everytime we go past the Methodist church up the street, so that's where we will go again. He was Bibleman/Batman last year. Only cause we saw it happening as we passed by the church so we flew home, dug for his costume in the bottom of the toybox and ran back
to get some treats. We usually have a fall festival that day, which is great!

Missy said...

Watch out for falling acorns. I hear they can be dangerous to people like you!

The Heltons said...

It's nice to see a Christian family dressing up and having fun for Halloween. I'm struggling through how to create a family tradition now that Eli's born that won't go too far into paganism but stays fun and not too strict. Any suggestions on how you and Quinn tackled this quest?

Oh, please respond (only if you have time) on my blog's latest post just because I'll forget to look here for the answer. :) Thanks!

Justin

The Heltons said...

It's Cari. Can Eli and I come up there and stay with you for the month of October? Sounds like fun! Last Halloween was so boring because I canceled everything fun due to the fact that I was convinced Eli would be born sometime that month.

Jennifer said...

October is the best month of the year. I love fall, and love that my birthday is the 24th. I'm so glad you have fun celebrating things - I sometimes think I homeschool for selfish reasons, because I love the crafty and holiday things so much!! Sounds like you might understand that!

Marsha said...

Fall is most definitely my favorite season of the year. Changing leaves, crisp air, blue sky, harvest moon. Suddenly craving anything pumpkin, the smell of cinnamon, apples, and brown sugar all swirling together and coming out like an apple crisp or mulled apple cider.
I know this is REALLY strange...well, maybe not to you, the QUEEN of strange and excessive complusive, but I love sitting on straw and smelling it and then feeling itching from it because it somehow went down my pants. Go figure, how does that happen? Oh but it does every time.
And there there's homemade soup and John Denver music. Doesn't get any better than tha!
I've never been into the spook stuff, although Missy did look cute dressed up like a Hershey's Kiss one year (3rd grade). She actually won the best costume award at school that year.
Hmm, maybe that's why she's a choco-holic!