A quarantine Halloween
Now that the jack-o'-lanterns are burned out, I can finally relax. This Halloween was a bit different, as most of 2020 has been. My Halloween season really started back in August with the first purchase of Grandmother's cookies circus animal Halloween edition package. I took a picture and I never posted it. I don't know why. I just let my anxiety get in the way.
Towards the middle of September my first decorations were out. Outside, I placed two thin metal Dia de Muertos skeleton heads that I bought at our first townhome five years ago. They where the first outdoor decorations I purchased. I was so excited because we finally had a small 2 by 3 yard space in the front with grass and I was able to display something so everyone could see. With that being said, I believe they will travel with me to every home I will live in the future.
Next, for decorations was the inside of my home and a little bit more of outside. I opened my Halloween decoration box and it has a few Pumpkinhead ghosts to hang in the trees, knick knacks for my fireplace/front door entryway, and random quirky items to place throughout the house. The main focal point of my home is always the front door. I usually try to create a character using the door. In the past I have had a whole Frankenstein head (we had green doors on our town home) you get the idea!
This year I felt sort of lazy and wanted to elevate what I already had tried so I decided to go with Jack Skeleton on the door again. But this year we actually stuck with the theme of Nightmare Before Christmas for the whole house. I made silhouettes of Jack skeleton, ogie boogie man, and bats for our windows. Upstairs windows just had a cris Kross of caution tape on every window. I also made vinyl images for all of our pumpkins that were on the front porch. We have one big pumpkin that had Jack and Sally standing inside of the moon. We have a jiu jitsu pumpkin for my husband, a burger pumpkin for me, and a baby Jack O'Lantern for our kid.
My favorite part of my Decor this year was my homemade pumpkin statue that I made out of Dollar Store pumpkins. I cut a hole in the bottom of each one, hot glued them to stack them on top of one another and strung a string of Christmas lights through them so they glow in the dark. I topped them with witch hats just to give an extra flare. They looked so nice! Other than that, I decorated the garage door, yard and some more spaces. Everything was pretty normal except for not attending any fall festivals or Halloween parties and not buying candy.
I usually wake up every morning at 5 a.m. and jump right on my phone to look for events in our area for kids. Halloween is usually one of the busiest seasons outside of Christmas for children with events all around town. This year there were only a couple of drive-thrus and a whole lot of virtual classes! I have learned to love Zoom. It is what our company, Sistahs with Sense, depends on and also it has created a space for individualized social groups. I have found so many children's story times and Cook with Me classes online, I just can't keep up! In the midst of that I also found a few online happy hours that seem interesting!
I planned on having three costumes this year - one for our virtual Halloween party, one for Topgolf with my girlfriend's, and one family costume with my husband and child. My First costume at the virtual Sistahs with Sense party was a hit! I was a grape made of balloons. Topgolf got canceled so my gypsy costume will just have to wait. On the day of Halloween I woke up and decided I'm going to get dressed that morning and be in character all day. Our family costumes were Aladdin, Jasmine, and Genie.
We started the day with a kid’s online cooking class, then we headed to the gym so my husband can train jiu-jitsu. While he trained I took the kid to a drive-thru trick-or-treat that was put on by the Mayor of Dallas. After the drive thru, we picked my husband up and went to Smashburger to get a free milkshake. All kids in costume receive the free full size milkshake on Halloween! We also ordered it to go because we were just ready to go home and chill. We went home and took our annual Halloween photos... Breathtaking!
I am so happy with how the photos turned out! We took them in our office with plywood board, white tablecloth, and a white bed sheet on the floor. With a little bit of photoshopping you'll never be able to tell! I am so grateful for every moment I get with my family, especially Spooky Seasons! I love our scary movie nights, Halloween pajamas, and all of the treats we make and eat together. Happy Halloween!