Our Little Corner of the World: Halloween 2011

"The foulest stench is in the air, the funk of 40,000 years, and grizzly ghouls from every tomb are closing in to seal your doom. And, though you fight to stay alive, your body starts to shiver, for no mere mortal can resist the evil of the thriller." -Vincent Price

For me, the Halloween festivities started with a pumpkin decorating contest at my office. Each "team" of employees had to carve or decorate a pumpkin, and there were no limits to the creativity that ensued. My team created "Polly Pumpkin Muffin-Top," a gourd that had apparently already eaten just a few too many sugary Halloween treats already.

This was the initial beginning of Polly on the Thursday before Halloween...

It took Lindsey and Tracy a little thought to make the puffy leg stuffing...

Then came time for leg assembly, with Valerie's help...

Benton helped out by hanging Halloween decor from the ceiling over our cubes...

And by, oh my, stuffing certain "areas" of Polly. Bad Benton!

The next day, Friday, we came in and decided to change up Polly's outfit and put makeup on her...

And we finally assembled her...

I have a picture on my work email of the FINAL Polly (with wig and everything). I'll have to see if I can dig it out. That Sunday evening (the day before Halloween) my mother fixed her famous "spooky dinner" for the family. In included "Scabs on a Slab with Guts Sauce," "Ghost Potatoes," and "Ghoulish Green Beans."

And of course, bread "toes..."

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And a very fall-ish table setting...

We ended the evening with dessert - "turds in the snow." You DON'T want to know. Actually, you probably do - it's just vanilla ice cream with rolled up bits of brownie. I LOVE her creativity! Thanks Mom!

On Halloween itself, I dressed as a black cat for the day. One of my coworkers took a picture of me when I got to work that morning, and David took another one of me that evening in our foyer before trick-or-treaters started coming by...

David and I decided to put our fire pit in our front yard and build a bonfire. That way, we could sit around it while we waited for kids to come trick-or-treating. Our neighborhood is super-dark, especially to be as "in the city" as it is. So that made it extra spooky! It was so much fun, and we loved handing out candy to all the cute little ones!

We had some visitors during the evening. My parents stopped by and hung out with us for a while, as did our friends Jennifer and Jason. They brought their sweet children, Russell and Meredith (dressed as Calvin and Hobbs). It was fun to have company!