The holidays have always been a special time for me. It started as a kid when my grandma would decorate the house from top to bottom. She would direct my grandpa as to where to put the boxes. Slowly and methodically, my grandma, cousins, aunts and me would pull out each out knick-knack and décor, placing it where grandma thought it would look best. I now have passed this tradition on with my own kids. Every year we would pull out the totes of decorations, taking everything out, admire each one and ultimately find the “perfect place” for it.

Until this year.

Here it is, a couple of months before Halloween and I have a certified Pinterest addiction. Any given evening you can find me making bloody candles (search it) and scary Halloween wreaths made out of laundry baskets. (I’m not kidding!) Well, there I was sitting in between piles of branches I am making into a Halloween tree (google it), and the kids walk in from school.

“Mom, what are you doing?”

“I’m making Halloween things—aren’t you guys excited?? We can put the Halloween decorations up soon!!”

“Mom—you are ridiculous. It’s too early to put up Halloween stuff.”

“Mom—I don’t want to put up Halloween decorations this year”

What?!

I paused for a moment. Was it indeed too early to be putting it up?

Fast forward a few days later. I’m on the phone with Jen and she happens to mention that she will be putting up her Halloween decorations soon. I relayed to her my kids’ thoughts on the subject.

“It’s never too early to put up Halloween!”

Well, that did it. My faith was restored in decorating my house. I am going to go all out this year. I don’t care if it’s still September.

On another note, the kids are getting older. The things that we used to do together when they were younger is beginning to change. No more excitement when pulling out the holiday ornaments and wreaths. It will most likely just be me and my cat admiring the talking skeleton and glow-in-the dark pumpkins. I will be the only one stretching the cobwebs from one end of the house to the other.

On my mission to find everything I needed to make my vision a reality, I rounded up the kids and we were off. First stop, Goodwill. I love this place. You can find anything and everything you need here. Of course, the kids wanted to find their perfect Halloween costumes.  10 stores later I found some great additions for my “haunted house”, and well, the kids did not find their costumes, but at least I have some pictures that will be very useful in either a) blackmailing them into doing their chores or b) getting revenge on them when they are older for all the sleepless nights and dirty diapers I had to change.

Happy Halloween!!

-Christin