Ramping up for Halloween

I love Halloween. Honestly, it is one of my favorite holidays. I think it makes the top five even. I am pretty nervous in admitting this, because it probably sounds completely anti-Christian, but it is true. I gave into that pressure for a few years by making my halloween costume a t-shirt from a Christian radio station, and have since pretty much given up dressing up myself, but other than my own costume issues, I've moved passed that pressure and the day is still something I get so excited for.

Halloween was always the day in Houston when the weather would have changed from hot and muggy to crisp and thrilling. It was also in the middle of "Kinkaid Week" - my school's equivalent of a homecoming. So that doubled the festivities and fun. And my parents went all out. Crowds of families would fill our tiny bungalow, my mother hand-made all my costumes and I always loved them (I know it is supposed to be lame for your mom to make your costume, but seriously - she made me an alien costume I loved so much I wore it three years in a row!), and the pinnacle of excitement for me was the pinata she would hang at the bottom of our stair case. I start getting hyper just thinking about it.

Exhibit A: mom-made costume for wee-little-me

I loved trick-or-treating. We had several neighbors who put a great deal of dramatic effort into creating spooky houses. It gave me the same emotional experience as working up the guts to ride a terrifying roller coaster, walking into those houses. Somehow, the lure of that candy, and conquering the overwhelming fear, made it worth all the effort.

In the past few years, especially while I had the baby bug, I looked forward to being on the other side of Halloween - being the neighbor handing out the candy. I've never had the creativity or effort to do the whole haunted house thing, but I love having the kids come to my door looking all cute and greedy and striking up little-people-sized conversations, feeding off their excitement, nervousness, and wonder.  I have also enjoyed this tradition of following this photography blog by Warren Harold as he counts down the days to Halloween with spooky images - he gets better every year!

And now I have my own little one the dress up. While she's not quite ready for a bucket full of candy, we're already having fun with little Halloween parties and activities. I have no bandwidth to be making her costumes myself [how did my mother do that?!?!], but I did get carried away and buy her not one, but two costumes for her first Halloween. Here's the first one she's already put to use:

Would you confess that you also enjoy this holiday? What are your favorite Halloween memories? What do you do to get ready? What costume are you planning for yourself or your little one this year? If you have a good enough idea, I am not past buying Sofia costume number three ;)