We Gladly Feast on Those Who Would Subdue Us

It's here!  It's here!  I can't believe it; it's finally here!  It's the most magical time of year!  It's Octoboween!  Huzzah!

There aren't many things that get me truly excited, and I am usually very frugal in my use of exclamation points, but this is wonderful!

Octoboween is a tradition at our house, a time when we join together in our celebration of the macabre.  And it makes me incredibly happy.

The gist of Octoboween is that we watch a Halloween movie every day.  But there are so many great films to choose from that we frequently watch more than one.  This year I was so excited in anticipation that I started watching a few mid-September.

I wrote about this tradition last year.  As October approached and I felt inclined to write about it again, I started to ask myself why Halloween is my favorite time of the year.  Have you ever tried to explain why you like something?  It can be tough.  But I'll try.

There's the glory of the cooling weather and the changing leaves.  There's the fact that my grandmother's birthday is in October, and she was my favorite person in the whole world.  There's football.  But those things are just part of the spell.

To me, Halloween is a time to play.  It's a time to be mischievous, to be sneaky.  There is something about the ability to laugh at danger, and death, and things that are frightening that can make us feel powerful.  Plus, there is something fun about doing things that make others shake their heads and doubt our sanity.

I'm not a big decorator.  The only reason anything gets put up for Christmas is because my kids insist on it and do all the work.  I don't even do much for Halloween.  But there will be a few touches. 

There will be a big, black swath of fabric draped above my front porch.  There will be a stuffed, rubber rat the size of a large cat in my living room.  And my living room is already pumpkin orange, so the mood is kind of preset.

I'm not sure why the macabre is so fun for me.  It has been for as long as I can remember.  I grew up on Edgar Allan Poe and Vincent Price.  I grew up watching Thriller Theater every Saturday afternoon.  I grew up telling horror stories.  I grew up loving the strange and spooky.

I love scaring people and getting scared.  Not the startling "BOO!" kind when someone sneaks up on you.  I like the scaring that is like a beautiful dessert.  It takes time.  There is a recipe to it, many details.  And after preparing it slowly and lovingly and carefully, I savor it!

No, we don't eat people.  My title comes from Morticia Addams.  It's the Addams' family motto.  One that we have adopted for our own.  Don't worry.  We're just playing.

It's Just Stuff, part two

Minimalism is about so much more than getting rid of clutter.  It's about a mindset, a life philosophy.  But it usually starts with clutter.

So I've been following a bunch of minimalist blogs lately.  I love their thoughts and hearing about their progress.  I love feeling like I've found people who understand how I feel.  And they inspire me.

One of the ideas I am trying to implement is to not have anything in my life that I don't use or love.  No more hanging on to things just in case.  No more keeping the old one as a backup after we've got a new one.  No more keeping things I don't like just because someone gave them to me.  No more storing things in the cupboard for a special occasion when that special occasion never seems to come.

Shortly after high school I was somehow convinced that I needed to get china, stoneware, and crystal.  It was expensive.  I begged my mom into helping me purchase four settings of each.  They are beautiful!

Now ask me how many times I've used them.  Um.  Hm.  I'd bet it's fewer than five times.  And I've been married twenty-one years.  For twenty-one years they've been sitting in my cupboard.  I've packed and unpacked them every time we've moved.  I've dusted them.  I've displayed them.  And I do love them.  But we just don't use them.

So as I was planning to gut my kitchen cupboards (just planning, the true gutting hasn't occurred yet), I saw those dishes.  And my heart seized up.  I never use them.  I should get rid of them.  But they cost so much money.  We never use them.  But I love them.  Okay, then use them.

My kids are older.  Theoretically we should be able to use fragile dishes and not break anything.

This was just before the Oscars.  We like to do a family evening for the Oscars.  Special treats.  Everyone completing a ballot before hand.  Prizes for the winners.  So I decided to make the night extra special by bringing out some of these precious dishes.

Actually, I used some glass tea trays (which we also never use) and the crystal.  They were placed on the table with the snacks.  My kids' faces lit up when they realized they were going to get to use them.  It was fun pouring Sprite and Diet Coke into wine glasses.  Even more fun drinking out of them.  I was glad I'd done it.

The night was going well.  I was winning (I always do).  Everyone was having a good time.

Then I heard a crash.  A very distinctive crash.  I knew instantly that it was one of my precious wine glasses.  The light blue ones that we displayed at our wedding.  The ones we drank fake champagne out of to celebrate our first anniversary.  The ones I loved.

My heart seized again.  But only for a moment.  I saw my kids' faces tighten as well.  They were waiting to see if it was going to ruin our night.  And I wasn't going to let it.

As it turns out, the cat had gotten up on the table and knocked off one of the glasses.  It was my fault for placing them there.  And as I cleaned up the crystal my focus was different than it would have been in the past.  There was the momentary "if only," but that passed quickly.  I wanted to get it cleaned up so I could get back to my family.  It was only a thing.  I wanted to be with my family having a good time instead of worrying about a piece of glass that I only see when we move.

I got it cleaned up and got back to the party.  It was never mentioned again.  The evening ended on a good note.

I call it a rousing success; three cheers for me:  Huzzah!  Huzzah!  Huzzah!

But then I was tested again when my daughter hit a pole with the new car.  That is a story for another time.

Octoboween

Huzzah!  The day has finally arrived.  The day I've been waiting for all month long.  It's the first day of Octoboween and I am so excited!

Seriously, not a lot of things excite me.  But the first day of October does.  It really, really does.

For most people, one day of Halloween is plenty.  For some it's too much.  But not for me.

I love the dark and scary stories.  I love the rats and spiders.  I love the macabre.

I grew up on scary movies, some much scarier than my children have yet to see.  Edgar Allen Poe movies with Vincent Price.  Stephen King.  All the original scary movies of the '80s (Halloween, Nightmare On Elm Street, Friday the 13th) and then some.  Plus lots of Hitchcock.

I don't go in for the hard stuff anymore.  Nothing R.  I just can't stand the gore.  And I've found that a good scary movie doesn't need it.  A really scary movie can freak you out without showing you anything.  It lets your mind scare you.  That's where the fear happens.

So a few years ago I decided I wanted more out of Halloween.  Thus, Octoboween was born.  Every day in October we watch a Halloween movie.

Halloween movie is a somewhat loose term.  If it has ghosts or monsters, it qualifies.  If it has Halloween in the title, it qualifies.  If it's scary, it qualifies.  So we end up with quite a broad range.

We will watch several M. Night Shyamalan movies (Signs, The Sixth Sense, The Village, Lady in the Water); probably a few Hitchcock movies (Rear Window, Rebecca); some more recent classics (Young Frankenstein, Labyrinth, Disney's Haunted Mansion, Ghostbusters, The Addams Family); definitely some Vincent Price (Fall of the House of Usher, Pit and the Pendulum); some original classics (Dracula and Frankenstein from the '30s); possibly Monsters, Inc. and Jaws; and we will end with Disney's Legend of Sleepy Hollow on Halloween.

It will be fun.  It's a great family bonding time for us.  Some days it will be just us; other times we'll have friends over.

It's the way we welcome fall.  It fits our family.  We revel in the ways we are weird -- together.  And isn't that what family traditions are all about?