"Yeah, I do Halloween..."

Those were the words uttered by my beloved husband of two months. It was the first week of October 2005 and I realized while we were in the Big Box Store that Halloween was just around the corner. I hadn't really done Halloween, although I tried to rally around this holiday aka the Great Candy Give Away for my son from time to time. I did not like carving pumpkins. First off, I do not do slime or anything slimy. Carving pumpkins was slimy work. Nasty even. *shudders* 

So that first year during the honeymoon bliss, I took it to heart that my husband went all out for Halloween. I was used to his minimalist attitude by then. If he said he "did Halloween" then come the 31st of October, we would DO Halloween! It meant getting lights and decorations and pumpkins and other spooky decor. 

It wasn't until I spent two days decorating our yard that he informed me that all he did was carve a pumpkin or two every year. We had SIX huge pumpkins!

Being newly married, I wasn't sure that that was grounds for a divorce or killing him. But we've made Halloween our holiday to celebrate ever since.  

That first year, I put up a headless College Student. The second year I had a better College Student.  The third year, I got creative and did our first Die Hard figure. I thought about it for days--something to honor my beloved husband. I put together new body parts with the help of my friend Jo and we set up the Die Hard Fisherman. I wish I had gotten a picture of it. He was sitting in the old rattan princess chair over the rock garden with my husband's antique bamboo (oops!) fishing pole that had a skull hanging off the end of the line.  He made people stop and stare. 

The next year, I ran out of time between graduate classes and did a hasty Die Hard Griller. I figured he was for me since I love to grill. He actually scared a couple of kids who thought he was really roasting people. 

 DieHard Griller

  
The next year,  I had been working with a non-profit animal welfare and had volunteered at numerous spay-neuter clinics. That gave me a wonderful idea for the Die Hard Advocate.  He was a hit with the adults and I hoped it helped the cause.  My husband likes carving pumpkins. The pirate was his first masterpiece. 

 Die Hard Spay/Neuter Advocate

   Ahoy Me Maties

Last year, I was racking my brains on something to do differently. I tried standing the Die Hard figure up but he is in bad sad shape. He doesn't stand anymore after spending years folded into the storage tote. So I perched him on a chair and gave him a cauldron to stir over "flames."  That didn't get near the attention as my husband's pumpkin did. Of course it was Election Year and we live in a very liberal town. There were teenagers calling their friends on their cell phones, inviting them to look at this "AWESOME" pumpkin and taking pictures of it. Young adults and older adults also took pictures or told us they liked "our" pumpkin. 

 Die Hard Cook

The AWESOME pumpkin

The aftermath

 

 This year, I haven't a clue what to do...and Halloween is around the corner...literally!