Halloween Traditions

Halloween this year looked a lot like last year. We had our second annual pumpkin carving party for foreigners complete with my once a year pumpkin treats and then went out in last minute thrift store costumes. Here are the deets - or as Tom Haverford would say, the tails...

PUMPKIN CARVING

Tuesday before Halloween we went out and bought a bunch of pumpkins. I would’ve preferred to go cut my own from the pumpkin patch but there never seems to be time, so we settled for the grocery store instead. We had a few new guests this year – one of which is my new coworker Franziska (yes, ANOTHER German in my office!) She was super excited to try this American tradition. 

Let the carving begin! 

Joey’s pumpkin was really weird. It looked like it had bean sprouts growing out of it. The pumpkins here are all spaghetti-y inside – not mushy like I remember from GA. We are convinced that there is something wrong with all these California pumpkins. 

Every year Joey complains about having to design the face on his pumpkin. Here he is having a hard time starting. I don’t know why he makes a big deal out of it; his pumpkins are always awesome to me!

Here are my favorite Halloween treats – Paula Dean’s pumpkin bars. This year, I didn’t even make any substitutions! I figure I only bake like twice a year, so I might as well let Joey enjoy it!

Finally Joey got some inspiration  - a puking pumpkin! See, they are always great!

Franzi was having the time of her life. She was SO proud of her mustached pumpkin.

All the pumpkins. From the left – Daniel’s scary pumpkin, my ghost pumpkin, Franzi’s mustache pumpkin, Stephanie’s happy pumpkin (she complained about designing a face too, but again, it’s fine!), Joey’s puking pumpkin, and Fabian’s all circle pumpkin. 

And the proud designers…

Another thing that seems to be different about these California pumpkins is how quickly they rot! This is Joey’s pumpkin just 3 days later – and it was inside the whole time!

See a little closer….

Eww! I’m sure it doesn’t help that he had the pumpkin guts in it but mine was pretty bad too. Maybe it’s the air out here, who knows.

COSTUMES

Once again, Joey and I went out to the thrift store to get some lazy costumes. Before we went, I brainstormed a long list of things we might be able to find at the thrift store to give us a little direction. One idea was for Joey to go as a safari ranger and for me to go as some sort of animal - I guess we were inspired from our South Africa trip. (Although I was super conscious this year to be careful to not dress up as something that makes me ugly or too cute – like last year’s teddy ruxpin fiasco!)

We got super lucky and we found a safari shirt for Joey and a zebra striped tube dress for me! (Ok, so I was kind of a slutty zebra…) Add a hat, binoculars, ears, and a tail and we were all set!

All dressed up and ready to go! I decided to add some stripes with body paint to take my costume up a notch. It took me like an hour to get ready and Joey like 5 minutes!

We walked downtown to the Gaslamp and just found a place with a lot of costume wearers. We met our friend Jordan there – can you tell what he is?

I don’t know the name but the guy from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. And here I am posing like a zebra. Joey told me this photo was not attractive and I should delete it but I’m not ashamed!

Aww, our first couples costume!

Most people knew what I was (how could you not!?) but quite a few people thought I was a white tiger for some reason. Then I ran into a girl who WAS a white tiger and I got really excited. I thought it made a good picture! (except for the fact that I was getting sweaty by this point and my stripes were running like crazy...)

We also met a guy with a great Indiana Jones costume. He even had a rat on his shoulder. He and Joey bonded over their love of Indiana Jones and became friends. We just hung out with him and his girlfriend this weekend. 

The next morning Joey was really craving Waffle House and wanted me to make him a huge plate of hashbrowns. He asked for 3 potatoes worth! I thought he was crazy so I only made two. 

Turns out his eyes were bigger than his stomach though because he couldn’t finish them…and thought he might be sick. Haha.

So that’s it! Nothing too exciting but fun nonetheless. Now I’m sitting on a plane on my way to Germany (I’m going for a medical tradeshow for work) and it is really bumpy. I’m getting a little nauseous so I’m glad I’m done writing this post. Until next time…