UPDATE: The winner is…Colleen C!
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I don’t know about you, but Halloween/Samhain/Dia de los Muertos is kind of a big deal around here. We don’t buy candy because we live in the boonies—no one goes door-to-door with their kids. We’ve painted pumpkins, put up our Halloween tree (a silver metal tree to hold our Strangeling ornaments), and begun purchasing the pieces of our costumes. We’re still hunting down all the face and hair paint we need to make a credible Harley Quinn. 🙂
All this made me wonder what sort of prep you do for the big date? Tell me about it and you’ll be entered to win a $5 Amazon gift card!
In the meantime, enjoy an excerpt from Zombie Love…
The morning he’d woken, feeling as though he had the worst hangover ever and rushing to the fridge for the hamburger I’d thawed the night before, he’d recognized the signs.
I’d awoken with him standing in the doorway, his eyes haunted.
“What’s wrong?” I’d asked.
He’d given me a tight smile, but then I’d noted the deep gray shadows beneath his eyes, the slick of perspiration on his forehead. The reddening irises. “Danny?” I’d asked, sitting up on my elbows as my stomach roiled.
No, it can’t be happening. Not to us. We’d done everything right. We’d stayed clear of quarantined areas. Used our own vehicles rather than public transportation to get back and forth to work. We never drank after one another. Didn’t eat out in restaurants where we couldn’t watch the cutlery and plates being sterilized. Didn’t kiss.
“How?” I’d asked, my throat thickening with tears.
He shook his head. “I don’t know, baby. But I have to go. I’ll walk to the center. Turn myself in. I won’t tell them where I live, but you’ll need to sanitize when I’m gone.”
My stomach tightened in rejection. “You aren’t going there.”
His sweet smile stretched, although his eyes watered with unshed tears. “I don’t have any choice. I’m already scared to death I may have infected you.”
I shook my head, the back of my throat burning. “You know what they say about those places. I won’t ever see you again.”
He spread his hands and gripped the doorframe, his head bowed. “I love you, Trish.” Then he backed away from the door.
I threw back the covers. “No! We’ll find another way. Wait this out. They’ll find a treatment.”
But he walked away, down the hallway toward the front door.
I scrambled from the bed and followed. Before he reached the door, I encircled his waist with my arms and held him back. “Don’t do this. Stay with me. We’ll find a way to keep me safe. You still have a little time.”
While he’d finished the raw hamburger and I’d drank a pot of hot coffee, we’d conspired. By the end of the day, I’d hit the hardware store two counties over, and he’d cleared his beloved studio.
That hug at the doorway was the last time I’d touched him.
I locked the door and walked around to the glass. The pile of clothing was where I’d left it. My gaze shot to Danny. He hadn’t torn the clothing to shreds as he had every time I placed a fresh stack inside his cage since the illness had taken his mind.
Instead as I watched, my eyes filling, he hobbled toward it. He shucked the grimy, blood-encrusted sweatpants he’d worn since he’d slipped the manacle around his own wrist. He bent and picked up the washcloth and clumsily soaked it in the water, rubbed it on the soap, and began to wash.
The fact he could think through the process of cleaning himself made me sob.
The sound must have penetrated the glass because his dark gaze found mine. His features were still cast in a dull, emotionless mask, but his red eyes told another story. He was there.
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I’m always at a Samhain ritual during trick or treat hours, so I don’t buy candy to pass out. I do, however, buy pretty much everything pumpkin spice that I know that I like in other flavors (for instance, I purchase pumpkin pizzelles but not biscotti, because I like regular pizzelles but hate biscotti). I went on a pilgrimage to Trader Joe’s and came home with over $80 in pumpkin flavored stuff. Plus what I bought at Target, CVS, regular grocery store, etc., lol!
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I love Halloween… soon I will put my decorations up… plan out what I will carve on my pumpkin… help my nephew carve his pumpkin…
I enjoy seeing the kids come around in their costumes… some get really creative! Once a boy came dressed as a Whack-A-Mole game… 😀
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We live in the boonies also. All my kids are grown and don’t live close so I don’t decorate any more. But a few years ago we took a round bale of hay spray painted the front to look like a jack o lantern. This year I’ll be visiting the grandgirlies in Texas on Halloween
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lmao cause its oldest daughters bday…. and hubby does the decorating for it… he has an old 1930 model A that he decorates with cob webs and bodies and stuff… puts it out on the front lawn with tombstones all around it and pumpkins… I take over after halloween with christmas!
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The community where we live has a party which we’ll be attending. I don’t do any decorating but I do love all of the things that come with fall. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread – yum!
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I love pirates so I have pirate skulls laying around along with a chest I made to hold the treasure, “treats”, I make homemade telescopes to give out along with candy and light sticks. I also wear pirate hat, eye patch and carry a sword. Have pirate music playing. Don’t know who has the most fun, kids or myself.
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I used to do so much with displays and ceramics but my kids are older and we only get a handful of children.
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Mostly my preparation for Halloween is in baking. I love to bake cupcakes and then decorate them in Halloween candies and frostings to create creatures and symbols of Halloween. I rarely get trick or treaters where I live so I bake cupcakes to share with my friends.
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We don’t usually do much but this year is a little different.
Our 5 yr old great granddaughter spent last weekend with us and she insisted that we go to Wal Mart and get Halloween stuff. So, now we have spider lights on the front porch. Pumpkins of every size and color. A big sparkly orange cat with its’ back all arched up like it’s ready to jump. A big black & purple spider on the coffee table. Spider webs with big orange spiders hanging from the fireplace. And of course the requisite skulls.
And like you, we live out in the country and haven’t had any Halloween visitors in many years. But the house looks cute and it made her happy so it was all worth it.
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We don’t bother much, but it’s fun to see what others get up to.
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We decorate the house and yard with witches, bats, ghosts, and pumpkins. Since we have many children in the neighborhood, we also have plenty of candy to give to the trick-or-treaters.
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Thanks, everyone, for sharing!
Diana! Your dd has the coolest birthday ever! Bet she loves the fuss.
And Shirley, when kids are into the holiday, it makes it so much fun!
The winner of the gift cert, chosen by random number generator is…Colleen C! Congrats, Colleen, and email me at delilah@delilahdevlin.com to arrange for delivery of your prize!
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😀 Thank you so much Delilah! Email sent!