Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween, everyone!  This day brings out another part of my creative side, as you’ll see in the pictures. For a moment, I’ll bring out my history nerd side. If you can suffer through that, you’ll probably enjoy the pictures.

Halloween’s roots began in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced ‘sow-en’), celebrating the end of summer and the beginning of a new year on November 1st. On Samhain, the boundary between the world of the living and the dead became permeable, and the ghosts of the dead would return to earth. Celebrants would light bonfires, dance in costumes, and leave offerings of food outside homes to appease the spirits and gain good luck for the coming year. Sound familiar?

Today’s celebration is named for the eve of All Saints Day, or All Hallow’s Eve.  It was established in the 8th century by Pope Gregory III to commemorate all Saints and Martyrs. It is often suggested that the timing of the holiday and it’s subject matter were part of an effort to absorb pagan holidays, such as Samhain, into Christian practices in order to ease the conversion process.

Ok, so time to take off one nerdy hat to show you another. Like I said, Halloween has always been an opportunity for me to be creative. And I was very fortunate to find a partner who loves being creative, as well. One of our friends, Ed, has these amazing, fun Halloween parties every year, and one of our first dates was dressing up for it.  That’s me in my work-clothes- I mean Batman outfit, and Jennifer in a Catwoman outfit that she totally rocked.

We have some great friends who keep us on our toes, but we have a tendency to win most years. That Billy Joel song about going to extremes– Yeah, it plays in my head while I’m making my costumes.

This year, Ed’s theme was Superheroes. I wanted to go epic. Wasn’t sure we could pull it off in time, but we made it. Jennifer lucked out. The worst part of her costume as Pepper Potts were the shoes. Of course, she rocked it again.

My costume was pretty uncomfortable to wear. And I’d knock stuff over a lot. But it was cool. So, so cool.

2017 was a hoot.  Ed’s theme was “People of Walmart”. Since we had just been married a couple months before, we came up with a great idea. Jennifer was definitely the star of this one, from the tiara, to the crossed out boyfriend tattoos, to the house arrest ankle bracelet. We were almost too scary…

Sometimes Ed’s themes are not as easy to be creative and goofy with. But we give it our best. 
2016’s theme was Hollywood. I threw in a little extra reference. Few people got it, but that’s probably for the best.

For 2015, the theme was zombies.  Not big into the genre, we struggled with trying to think up something fun until it occurred to us that Frankenstein’s monster could be considered a zombie. Then it became lots of fun.

I was even able to pay homage to one of the great movies of all time, from one of the great comic minds of all time.  Yes, I did the dance.

The year before that, Ed’s theme was Las Vegas.  I’ve never been there, but I understand shows are a big part of it. Jennifer wanted to be Cher, so I found a way to make being Sonny fun.  And probably a little insensitive…

It’s not just Halloween.  We goof off whenever we get the chance. Even poor Finn doesn’t get away with staying out of the fun.

Portland runs SantaCon every year. Basically it’s an Old Port Pub Crawl in a Christmas themed costume for several hundred nutcases.  Of course we’d go.  And we’d represent two of the best Christmas movies of all time.

Sometimes things go differently in your head.  Considering how much we do this stuff, I thought it would be perfect to propose to her at 80’s dress up night at a local dance club.  While dressed as 80’s Richard Simmons.

Turns out, it wasn’t as romantic as I thought it would be.  Luckily, after she got over the shock, she said yes.  I am a very, very, lucky man.

But then…..  I’m Batman.

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