So as a soccer and dance mom, you might find it a bit random and unexpected for me to have this quirky Halloween tradition – but I’m going to share it with you anyway.
I normally start the night in our neighborhood where the families on our cul-de-sac gather, and while I still don’t know why this is an AZ tradition when the temperature is still in the 90s, we eat chili. The kids play, and we catch up with neighbors we haven’t seen since May (we seriously have not seen them since them since Memorial Day). My home is decorated not with a scary Halloween theme but with that fall pumpkin theme complete with hay bales and rustic monogrammed earth toned wreaths. I have a candle burning that smells like a pumpkin latte, I am usually wearing fall colors or a t-shirt from Target or Old Navy that says “Happy Halloween,” and I have some dessert for the kiddos like perfect pumpkins (out of oranges and chocolate chips) or cobwebs (out of pretzel sticks and marshmallows). You get the picture – this part of the night is a pretty, preppy pumpkin affair.
Once the trick-or-treating part of the evening commences, my husband will walk (or at least keep an eye out for) my 8 and 10 year old around the neighborhood. I report to the house to pass out candy to the kiddos. But really, while I wait for the doorbell to ring, I begin my annual tradition……. I turn on the TV and DVD and start blasting horror movies.
I usually will keep with the seasonal theme and stick to a Halloween series. It’s probably not PC to admit you that I am excited to watch a serial killer in a hockey mask named Michael Myers terrorizing teenagers, but it’s a tradition. When I hear the doorbell ring, I pause the movie and cheerfully answer the door and admire the cute Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle or Elsa that awaits his/her M&Ms (we give out chocolate stuff – no raisins, goldfish, tooth brush, fruit roll-ups, stickers, or temporary tattoos at our house). I then rush back to the movie.
I use to watch this junk as a teenager, and I guess once a year it’s good to be a kid again.
