Holidays in Our Home: Halloween

I've mentioned that my mom celebrates every holiday known unto man, and she has definitely passed on a love of celebration to her my sisters and me. Of course, Mom always went all out for the major holidays, but she found ways to celebrate the minor holidays as well. The big six were Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, 4th of July, Halloween and Valentine's Day. The next tier of holidays included First Day of School, Last Day of School, Labor Day, Memorial Day, St. Patrick's Day, Super Bowl Sunday, and I feel like I may be leaving something out here... Mom once had a "I Have a Dream" party on MLK day, and I'm fairly certain we celebrated Ground Hog's Day at some point in my childhood. (Mom is the same woman who comes up with the most awkward sitting around the table games for each holiday, but that is another post...

That being said to celebrate all the holidays is only natural for me, and Halloween is particularly special because it is also Matt's birthday. (Those of you who know Matt know that this birth date fits him oh-so-well.) Not unlike my best friend, born on the 4th of July, Matt grew up thinking his birthday must be a really big deal since everyone around him celebrated! October 31 also begins what we call "the season of holidays," with Matt's birthday, Patti-Grams' birthday, Thanksgiving, Aunt Tori's birthday, our anniversary, Christmas, and New Years. This year we are adding the future Uncle Derek's birthday in between Thanksgiving and Aunt Tori's birthday!) So we tend to get pretty excited about the kickoff of the holidays, and we begin celebrating in early October. 

Though we don't do the exact same things every year, there are certain family traditions we've established that we try to pretty well keep consistent. Each October, the Roden Family...

• visits a pumpkin patch. Whether in Franklin or Atlanta, we load up, head out to a local farm and choose pumpkins. I began visiting pumpkin patches while teaching 2nd grade, and it was one of the highlights of Fall for me, so it was definitely a tradition I wanted to continue with my own children. This year as Will's first trip, and Patti-Grams was visiting when we visited a farm very near our house, so this year was extra special. (Last year was actually the "Great Pumpkin Patch Meltdown," but that is another story.
  
• enjoys a Fall Festival. Again, this tradition began before Matt and I married, as my family attended Downtown Franklin's Pumpkinfest every year, and I also attended PCA's Fall Festival once it began. After we had Sophie, Pumpkinfest became an important part of our Fall tradition, and we even made special trips home from Atlanta to be a part of this special day. Over the years though, Pumpkinfest became more and more crowded, and I became more and more frustrated that we were spending more time maneuvering through crowds than enjoying the people we were in town to visit, so this year we developed a new tradition. We visited in Franklin the weekend before Pumpkinfest and enjoyed the amazing Fall Festival in our new neighborhood. I was blown away by how much fun we had, without the crowd. There were three bounce houses, pumpkin coloring, face painting, music, an amazing petting-zoo experience, and free food! Sophie and her friend from the neighborhood ran all over the activities field enjoying similar things to the activities at Pumpkinfest without the lines! They even had free popcorn and cotton candy. The afternoon ended with a Trunk or Treat at the clubhouse, so the children were able to break out the costumes a bit early and get a head start on candy gathering. I was thankful for the day, and I hope this will become our new Fall Festival tradition.
• carves pumpkins. Typically, we have carved in Franklin at Patti-Grams and Tato's around the fire pit. It is always a memory-making evening, complete with a carving competition that I am quite convinced I win each year. Now my husband is an artist, Tori's fiance is an artist, and Tori and my best friend have more artistic ability in their little fingers than I do in my entire body, so it is a mystery, or perhaps a matter of perspective at how I win each
  
   year when my design has never varied even in the slightest, but
   nonetheless,
  each year I pull out victory once again...

• bakes. Halloween cookies, Halloween cupcakes, pumpkin crunch (a definite family favorite). Celebrating holidays brings out our sweet tooth, and gets us geared up for the baking that is to come during Thanksgiving and Christmas. 
• has a party! We've used Halloween and Matt's birthday as an excuse to throw a party almost every year. The meal varies a bit, but we always play games and enjoy our friends and family. In the past few years, Matt has also thrown a Halloween Bash for students, complete with a maze, dancing. and frightening surprises. 

• trick-or-treats. Sophie has been a pumpkin, a ballerina, a cowgirl, and Cinderella. This year she is Little Bo Peep and Will is debuting as "Peep's sheep." Now I've been warned that he will be furious with me later, (in fact, I'm not sure he isn't a little embarrassed now...), but I am totally fine with that. See, I know how very soon he will refuse to be anything that doesn't involve a gun, sword, laser, etc., so since he can't talk yet....it is Mama's choice. 
•  reads Halloween books and watches Halloween-ish movies. Our favorites book is The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything, and this years' movie line up includes the Disney villains movie and The Teacher from the Black Lagoon. Now Daddy has quite a few other favorite Halloween movies, but he has to watch those without any of the rest of us! 

This year we are adding 

adding an exciting activity - The Evil Prince Party - at the most wonderful place not far from us called The Ritzy Pixie. We hope this will become another one of our fun Halloween traditions. We are also excited about celebrating with Aunt Tori and soon-to-be Uncle Derek, who will be visiting our new house for the first time. We've heard that Halloween in our new neighborhood is over the top, so I'll have to give an update after I've experience Halloween - Georgian style.