Weekend Intelligence: Halloween House Party!

A lot changes in a year: jobs change, new friends come and old friends move on. But one thing that's a tradition in our house is Halloween. That's OUR holiday! For four years now, we have decked our house out in Halloween decor, went all out on our costumes and handed out some of the best candy in the neighborhood. And now, for two years, we've also thrown a big Halloween party. So, in typical weekend intelligence fashion, here are the highlights!

Honestly, we weren't going to do a party this year. Oh, I had THOUGHT about doing one this year since last year, but I didn't think there would really be any interest. A third of the people that were invited and/or attended the one last year had moved out of state, including the handful of party crashers. But about two weeks away from what would have been the party, and completely out of the blue, I had a few friends mention individually that they were really looking forward to my party this year...

I guess that means I'm throwing a party this year. >.>;

A Facebook event posting, some online costume shopping and some last-minute babysitter calls later, and we had a party planned. We decided to go with a kind of Alice in Wonderland theme. D picked out an amazingly detailed Red Queen costume, and I went with a Mad Hatter costume that included the works. Well, it was supposed to include the works. Instead, the hair was pulled off the hat, the tie was sticky and the pants were missing. Sounds like a rough weekend (pa-dump-psh)... Anyway, I called the customer service line for the site that I ordered it from and sent pictures of what remained of the costume, and they got me a refund and said I could keep the costume.

Now, the costume was not all that great of a deal for the price I paid, but it was a great deal now that it was free. Throw in some hamburger queso and some crock pot Lil Smokies and meatballs, homemade sparkling cranberry wine, beer, liquor and mixers, 72 jello shots (yes, we made 72 of them, in pina colada, strawberry daiquiri and margarita flavors and spiked with the appropriate spirits for the flavor) and a playlist of some creepy movies and music, and you have yourselves a party. I invited all the San Antonio people I knew, and D (with her new and successful network marketing business) invited a TON of people. We had a decent turnout, and even had some party crashers again this year.

Trick-or-treating was great again this year. Added to the collection of decorations this year is a skeleton pirate to hang on the door knocker, a larger skeleton pirate that looks like it's breaking up through the ground around the bushes and three skulls that connected to the fog machine via hoses. The first two made it through the holiday, but the tubing for the skulls started melting from the heat of the fogger, so they got tossed. At least we still have the skulls for next year.

This next week will be a full week, but then I'm taking Monday off for a 3-day weekend. Colin and I have some important business to take care of that Monday... :) Stay tuned.