What Halloween Means To Me

What Halloween Means To Me

Ever since I was a little thing I've loved Halloween. My first costume when I moved into my now adopted parents home was a green crayola crayon that my mother made. My then foster brother Andy took joy in taking me Trick-Or-Treating in our neighborhood and would wear a mask and occasionally try to scare me with it. I loved going down East Fairfax in Cleveland Heights each year collecting tons of candy and seeing the awesome decorated houses. Every year my mother would create the coolest costumes for me to go trick or treating in. My favorite was a Pumpkin Princess. I loved carving pumpkins and baking the seeds to eat. I also loved drinking hot apple cider. I remember one home on East Fairfax who would serve apple cider and doughnut holes every year. It was a little old lady and her husband. The lady was a lunch aide at my school and we absolutely adored each other. So every year i'd go to her house on Halloween and visit with her. As I got older of course I just began to buy costumes at the store.

My family would come over for a Halloween party and we'd serve food and play games. There was Bingo, and the mummy wrap game. and can't forget Free the Ghost! we'd eat amazing food and just spend time together in costume winning prizes and doing crafts. It was always a "hoot"

I remember my "foster" now adoptive dad and my sister always were a fan of scary movies. My birth mother too and watching them during the fall season. I can't count how many times I've seen Halloween or Candy Man, Or even watching Halloween town on Disney or Hocus Pocus on ABC Family every year. It was always a little tradition of mine and to this day I still need my Hocus Pocus and Halloweentown fix. not to mention the main Halloween movie The Nightmare Before Christmas.

When I became a mother to my 4 year old Tristan I then took part in dressing him up in costumes each year. First year he was a little monster like something you'd see on Sesame Street, next he was Casper, the following Peter Pan, after that he was Jack Skellington, and this year we're going as Cave People. He brought life back into Halloween for me since the family no longer throws Halloween parties for the outside relatives to come over and have fun. I enjoy taking my son Trick--Or-Treating and dressing up with him as my brother did with me when I was a kid. Tristan never eats all of his Halloween candy. In fact, I still have left over candy from the previous year!

Unfortunately East Fairfax lost an amazing couple and their creative juices for the Halloween Spirit. We did however find East Scarborough in Cleveland heights a very lively street full of scares and frightening decor to a mild light hanging and graveyards.

With all that said, What Halloween means to me is not blood, gore, and scary movies. it's about being creative and having fun. Having some quality time with the people you love most and putting smiles on your children's faces. It's a time of passing down spooky family traditions and delicious family recipes. Finding the fun in every holiday is really what it's all about!