halloween: lord of the rings

Well, another Halloween has passed. This year was very successful, too! John and I dressed up as King Aragorn and Queen Arwen this year (with terrible wigs!) and had a bunch of friends over to celebrate. John wore the cloak I had sewn for him for the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II premiere, made a breastplate from cardboard, wielded a copy of Anduril, and accessorized with my Evenstar and his Lothlorien leaf clasp. I finally wore a dress I bought on super clearance from a costume shop who-knows-how-long ago and my tiara that I wore when I got married. I had fun baking and planning the night before while listening to horribly corny Halloween music (Ghostbusters Theme, Addams Family Theme, "Thriller," "Werewolves of London," "Purple People Eater," "I Put a Spell on You," and "Love Potion Number Nine.") I made my very favorite pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting and attempted to make mini pumpkin pies. The bars turned out absolutely perfectly. The pies... they turned into sticky goop that, apparently, according to John, tasted just fine, but were hard to eat since they stuck to the cup cake liners. But it was just pumpkin, vanilla pudding, egg, and sugar, so they had to have tasted good.

And, yes, that is Victoria being a creeper.

So we ended up with a great menu- pumpkin bars, sliced apples with caramel, strawberries, and hot apple cider. The cider is my mom's recipe, and it is delicious. I have a feeling I will be making much more of it in the near future, especially since John and I will be spending the end-of-year holidays by ourselves in Provo this year. Our guests contributed by bringing an amazing chocolate peanut butter cake, some Chex Mix, more apples (which was perfect to balance out the extra caramel we had!), and kettle corn.

So the night started out with our first trick-or-treaters we've had in the three Halloweens that we've been married. I was so excited that I didn't really care that the adults were also dressed up, had trick-or-treat bags, and were asking for candy. Luckily, sensing a repeat of last year, I hadn't bought any candy to pass out. However, in case we did have a few kids come to our door, we were prepared with a few pieces from goodie bags that John's mom had given us. We were left with way too much candy last year and it would have just set me up for disappointment again if I had actually bought any.

Then lots of friends came over, we ate, we watched Sleepy Hollow, and just had a great Halloween. What else is this holiday for besides dressing up in fun costumes and eating lots of sugar while watching creepy movies?

Harry and Hermione

Tiger Lily and Peter Pan

Daleks! (Mom, click on that to find out what they are.)

"Occupy Provo" protestors: "My arms are tired" is my favorite.

I'm sure Suki is most relieved that Halloween is over because now she has a whole 364 days left to go until she's forced to stay inside all evening again (we don't let her out on Halloween night). And she's free to sleep on my wig now that I don't need it anymore. I was hoping to throw it away, but she has decided that it's her new bed.

Speaking of next Halloween, I wonder if I can convince John to be Rhett Butler so I can be Scarlett O'Hara. Rhett is super sexy, so who wouldn't want to be him? Or maybe I should do what my mom did and make my husband be Mammy. (Note: I wouldn't actually have him do "blackface" and willingly offend anyone. This picture was taken a long time ago.)