my favorite time of year...

Actually, I love all of the seasons.  I love spring because everything is so fresh and new.  I love the relaxing days of summer where we can sleep in and stay up late and hang out by the pool in the afternoon.  But the fall is so beautiful.  The leaves on the trees are changing color.  The weather is simply beautiful.  And to add to all of that, it has all of the great holidays.  Halloween is a great kick-off into the season, although we start planning for it a year in advance.  Seriously...as we're driving home on Halloween night, someone always asks, "So what are we going to be next year?"  Last night was our first Halloween celebration with Trunk or Treat at the church, and I spent the entire day sewing.  Yes, we start planning for Halloween a year in advance, but I tend to wait until the last minute for costumes...at least the ones that I have to make.  And every year, we have a family theme.  This year, we're classic horror film monsters, thanks to our youngest little monster telling us that he didn't want to dress as a family this year.  It about broke my heart to hear it.  He told us that he wanted to be a werewolf, so we decided that we could work with that.  So, we have a werewolf, a mummy, Frankenstein's monster, and the bride of Frankenstein.  Trunk or Treat is always a great way for us to get a trial run with our costumes and work out any kinks that we may have before the big day of Halloween.  With Halloween being on a Sunday this year, we have lots of days to celebrate and wear the costumes.  School parties and trick or treating downtown are on Friday, costume party on Saturday, and Halloween on Sunday.  Love it!  Jerad and I both have theatre degrees, so I think this is a way that we express our inner desire to play another character.  At least for a night, we get to perform again.

Here we are for our first go-round.  

I'm sure the costumes will evolve as we get closer to Halloween night.