The Spooktacular Spicer Halloween

 

I loved Halloween as a kid. As much as I adored taking guts out of the pumpkin. wearing a cool costume and getting loads of candy, another thing that made it such a fun day was being able to stay up a little later to watch all the network TV Halloween cartoon specials starring the likes of Garfield, Fat Albert, Charlie Brown and Mickey Mouse.

Consider this little post the Spicer version of the Halloween Special except instead of a message that there is more to life than candy or having spooky ghost pirates invade a deserted cabin, it is pictures of my kids dressing up and getting excited about candy.

Halloween did indeed creep its way to the Spicer household this year, and it felt almost like a normal Halloween, which was nice to start having things that with a few small kinks felt like how it was done pre-pandemic.

The big Halloween mystery was what Danika would dress up as. If you remember, she was Mulan for school, but Danika tends to like to do a new costume for every day. Leading up to Halloween, she had pitched several including Rey from Star Wars and Ariel from The Little Mermaid. But Mulan was the get-up that meant she got to wear 'big girl make-up', which was the most thrilling thing ever on Friday, so that earned the princess another victory.

Once again, the make-up and hair credit all goes to Emily, because I only get to be the emergency hair person, and Halloween is no time for emergencies.

Everett again was Bowser from Super Mario Bros. and every bit of the costume was the masterwork of my amazing wife, Emily.

Because a few people were tricked on Friday, Emily did make the Bowser shell. It was not purchased like that. Yes, I keep telling you that my wife is amazing. In more ways than just costume design, but that is just one of her super skills. My super-skill was being smart enough to marry her.

Due to renovations, we didn't really decorate the house this year, because we are essentially treating one room as our family room. kitchen, dining room and living space. I'm getting a bit of a flashback to my years as a twenty-year old. But Danika made a few Halloween decorations at school and so, we put them up.

Though the renovations on our deck and inside our house may do a more effective job in scaring people or making it seem haunted. But we didn't spend our whole Halloween crammed into out house anyway. We were invited over to Emily's sister's in Toronto for some games and festivities before racing back to Brantford to show off the costumes to my parents, then strolling down the streets of nostalgia by taking my kids trick or treating in the neighbourhood that I grew up.

Everett was initially not down with the idea of trick or treating around my parent's house, as he protested several times that our neighbourhood gives out full-sized chocolate bars. I reassured him that I grew up in the area. I trick or treated in the area, and there was a reason why my friends always wanted to come by my place on Halloween.

All in all, it was as good as a pandemic era Halloween could be and the kids had a blast. It is always fun to be reminded how insanely talented Emily can be too. I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween as well.