Halloween update

Ah Halloween, my favorite holiday of the year. Colin and I had a lot of fun preparing our house for our first ever trick-or-treaters', and getting into the Halloween spirit. Here is an update on our seasonal activities.

First the pumpkins. We carved four pumpkins in total, two each. Colin carved one pumpkin to resemble Tux the Linux penguin, and the other was a two sided comedy/tragedy pumpkin. I carved one of my pumpkin quite simply, because I stuck a whole bunch of plastic bugs all over it. The other pumpkin I carved was a political pumpkin, mostly because Colin alerted me to the joy that is Yes We Carve. As you might imagine, this is a pumpkin carving site in support of Barack Obama*. It featured stencils of the Obama campaign slogans to carve into your pumpkins, and outlines of the senator and his running mate. I decided that I should carve the slogan from Jewish Americans for Obama (no, it was not 'he may be a schvartze, but we support him anyway', jeez people!). I had just had a conversation with my mother about the Obama campaigns use of the transliteration of Barack Obama into Hebrew as its slogan. Supposedly, the lack of English is a daring move designed to show solidarity with Jews. (for more on Jewish political buttons past and present, check out the amazing NY times article here).


My Obamakin, and on the right, the tux the penguin pumpkin. Please also note the creepy plastic bugs and fake bones we put on our porch.


Up next, the costumes. Now I spent several weeks making my costume, which was that of Baron Samedi, the Voodoo loa of the dead. Colin on the other hand, started his costume about an hour before we left for a Halloween party. He went as Eddie from Rocky Horror Picture Show, and I think he pulled off a fairly convincing Meatloaf, albeit one who had undergone bariatric surgery.



Me in my costume as Baron Samedi, and Colin as Eddie.

We also decorated the outside of our porch with spiderwebs and more plastic bugs. As a final touch, I put votive candles in brown paper lunch bags that I had glued yet more plastic bugs to. The trick-or-treaters' we had come by seemed to think we had done a pretty awesome job of decorating, although I think they were most creeped out by Hodag meowing down at them from the upstairs porch.

All in all, we had a great Halloween.


* non partisan note, after discovering yes we carve, I searched for a McCain pumpkin carving site, and was unable to find one.