Halloween 2011

Vivian and I had another fun-filled Halloween weekend together. We kicked things off with a Halloween dance at the Eagle's Lodge with our Jitterbug friends — Eric, Frank, and the Nothnagels came as Angry Birds, Maggie and Lee came as Batgirl and Robin, and Frank and Julia were Buzz Lightyear and Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl from Toy Story. We had a costume contest and a jack & jill contest, but everyone who came by were winners in spirit — especially those who stuck around for after-midnight breakfast at Village Inn at stupid o'clock.

On Saturday night, Jenny and Tamra hosted a pumpkin-carving party up in northwest Omaha. Vivian and I bought a couple of discount pumpkins the other day that we hacked together with a bunch of our friends — Keith, Jon, Amanda, Anne, and Venche. There were plenty of treats to go around, of course, including a bunch of caramel apples. We also scooped out the seeds, which Vivian washed and roasted with some cinnamon and sugar afterward.

We wound the party down later on by watching John Carpenter's original Halloween film. It was the movie that introduced Jaimie Lee Curtis to the world, along with the concept of the modern "slasher" film that became quite popular throughout the 1980s. This film seemed quite tame by comparison, with most of us yelling at Jaimie to go stick a knife in Michael Myers' heart (rather than simply assume poking him with a sewing needle effectively killed him for the rest of the film).

Of course, no Halloween weekend would be complete without a party in the Nothnagel's basement. The party fell on a Sunday night this year, which meant Vivian and I had to deal with picking up donation bread from Panera and getting up early for work the next morning. We still managed to squeeze in a good deal of dancing with our colorful assortment of friends once the party got started. Ruth showed up wearing a hilarious "shark eating somebody" costume, so I naturally put Mack the Knife into the evening's playlist (no word yet on whether the party "jumped the shark" at any point). Eric and the Angry Birds made another appearance, as did an assortment of gangsters, superheroes, and a super villain (kudos to Bruce, aka Red Skull, for being the only person at the party who knew who I was dressed up as).

I swear Halloween is now more popular with adults now than with children — more of the "grown-ups" I know play dress up nowadays than actual children who come to our door begging for candy. But at least nobody TP'ed our house. This year.