Happy St. Lucia Day!

From the time I was a small girl, I have always wanted to celebrate St. Lucia Day. December 13th, a day marked in Sweden, Norway, and other northern countries, is marked by St. Lucia Day. A day honoring a Christian martyr, celebrated by the oldest girls in a family dressing as Lucia girls, and bringing coffee and buns to their parents. To celebrate my Swedish/Norwegian heritage, this year I dressed up as St. Lucia.

Did I also mention that it was my birthday on December 13th?

St. Lucia Day. My birthday. In my wedding dress, with my red sash, and homemade wreath of candles, I set out with two of my college friends to Seattle’s Pike Place Market to pass out candy canes as a strong female holiday character. To my great joy, there were many kids who said “Santa Lucia!” when they saw me. Seattle has a strong Swedish and Norwegian heritage, so it was fun to meet little blonde kids who had just come from dancing at the Nordic heritage museum and then getting candy canes from me at the market. A fun experience for me, too, and a great way to get another use out of my wedding dress!!

Super Family

This year’s theme revolved around Potamus’ love of all things super hero related. We had Wonder Mom, Bat Dad, and Spider Kid. Pretty epic. He fell asleep halfway around our neighborhood loop. I had to carry him asleep on my shoulder with his heavy sack of treats dangling from his grubby little fists.

He now keeps saying “chocolate,” and “costume,” and I get the two confused because he can’t quite enunciate well enough yet. At any rate, we had a fun Halloween, and hope you all did too!

A Foxy Halloween

I’m so rarely trendy, but this year’s costume was modeled after the delightfully annoying  fun “What Does the Fox Say” video.

To be totally truthful, my costume was an inside family joke turned trendy as a total accident. But I loved it.   We took Potamus to a local church for “Trunk or Treat,” to see grandma dressed up as a farmer, and I got so many little kids asking “what does the fox say?” and I’d bust out with a little “rindingdingdingding” and do a little wiggle. Clearly Halloween was made for mature adults like me.

After that we roamed our neighborhood for a bit, stopping at some friend’s houses, and saying hi to all our neighbor kids that we knew. I loved seeing all the clever family costumes, like our neighbors the super heroes. And Potamus has a BLAST helping pass out candy to all the kids who came to the door. Though he didn’t quite get the idea that passing out candy didn’t mean that he got to have another piece of candy for every kid that came to the door. I’m pretty sure he ate like 5  mini Twix before we cut him off for the night…

All in all, Halloween was really fun/exhausting. And of course Potamus has been up this morning since 5am…

How do you celebrate Halloween? Trick or Treating? Halloween or Harvest Party? Turning off the lights and hiding in the back bedroom? Tell me!

Disposable Holidays

My mom made this Minnie Mouse dress for me. I wore it until it was in tatters.

Holidays: I love them. LOVE them. I love Halloween…dressing up and getting to be a different archetype or part of my personality is SO MUCH FUN! As a kid my parents were conservative fundamentalist Christians, but they still allowed us to participate in Halloween activities providing that we didn’t dress up as anything “evil.” There were several years I went as a princess or a fairy or once as a very non PC Indian (from India) girl (though I rationalize it now as an adult because our neighbors were from India and gave me the salwar kameez set and I’ve lived in India and freaking love and respect the culture so much that I really think I was Indian in a former life. At any rate, not very PC, I know). One year I was a mime with my best friend and another year (um, possibly senior year of HS) I was a mermaid. I wore scuba flippers covered in sequins. It was rad.

Today is Halloween. And then there will be Thanksgiving (which is like Christmas without the drama of presents) and then my birthday/Potamus birthday/our anniversary/Christmas/New Years. It’s like this totally magical season upon us and I will love it hardcore. But I find myself in this strange dilemma…decorating our house.

If I go with the Halloween theme it’s over quite quickly and on to Thanksgiving. Do I go with a Fall theme that then drags on from October all the way through November? (seems too long?) and then Christmas is right around the corner…it’s exhausting. Also, I don’t like junk. I really love it when people decorate (especially for Christmas), but the act of breaking out all the Christmas decorations as a kid and putting them all over the house was exhausting. And then there was putting them away, which was a letdown and boring and overall more of a chore (also, sad to see a holiday end, ya know?).

Now, as an adult, with my own home, I’ve run into an entirely new dilemma: storing holiday junk. Our non-functioning garage has turned into a pile of boxes of plenty other remnants of our former life (books from when Boof was a pastor, notebooks from when I was in grad school, clothes from when Potamus was a newborn…you get the idea). What has prevented me from decking my house for any holiday is the overwhelming feeling that everything turns into junk the day after the holiday. I mean, I’ve had the advent gingerbread house and snowman cookie jar sitting around on my counter since last Christmas when my biological family gave it to me. But it’s felt like clutter since last Christmas.

Last year I went to the dollar store and got some window clings that looked like blood and a ghostly face. It was fun. And I threw it all away the day after Halloween because I couldn’t bear to pack it around for a full year. But I feel guilty for that waste…not only wasting money, but also throwing that stuff into the garbage. It wasn’t donation worthy, though, and so I didn’t feel like I had many options. This year I feel the same way…I got a few inflatable Halloween decorations that could be stored easily or donated, but it’s not nearly the decorating theme I’d normally gravitate toward and seems like I’m caught in this weird place…and it’s only Halloween. Now that Potamus is getting older shouldn’t I want to do the Christmas tree and ornaments and garlands like I loved growing up? But the thought of all the money I’d spend on buying that and then having to store it or give it away…I dunno, I just feel…torn by it all.

So tell me…how do you handle decorating for holidays? Do you invest in things you’ll pack away for the year? Do you buy new stuff each year? Do you keep your house bare and only decorate inside your heart? Tell me!

Friday Funnies

The Halloween section of Value Village was calling my name. And Potamus wanted to try on all the wigs and hats. I couldn’t stop laughing when we put them on. So funny…and I remembered how much I love having Fridays off.

Crazy clown

Sad anime baby

If i had a brunette

Bed head?

Thoughtful purple head

He couldn't stop laughing