Halloween Morning

It's after midnight as I type... I am still too wound up from the party and the chocolate desserts that were on our dining room table to even think about sleeping yet. Too many wonderful goodies, but the best two were brought by our friend C. She had chocolate mice (complete with tails, made from cherries and Hershey kisses) and "Severed Fingers" (a Martha Stewart recipe). The fingers were made from a dough that actually looked like a person's fingers. The "fingernails" were slivers of almonds that she painted with red food coloring. And the fingers were standing upright in a bowl filled with crushed chocolate cookies-- so they looked like they were stuck into a bowl of dirt. They looked hilarious on the table!

Speaking of the table... I had found some silky material in one of the local fabric stores-- black background, with glowing gold and purple and orange spiderwebs all over it. I cut it to fit both the dining room table and the sofa-table in the living room-- looked great and very Halloween-y.

I had Halloween headbands for the ladies-- with either a witch or a ghost or a black cat on them. I also found red glitter wigs with red satin horns.... perfect devil-hair! The ladies got to pick what they wanted to wear, and they brought them home to wear tomorrow for Halloween night when they open their doors to the trick-or-treaters.

This party was just great, if I do say so myself... we all had so much fun! And the costumes--- our friends A & D were dressed in outfits straight out of the 1950s-- A in a poodle skirt and initial blouse, with white sneakers and "bobby-socks." D had on a leather jacket, jeans, and a rock & roll tee-shirt. Both of them looked like they could have been in that old television show "Happy Days." (Fonzie would have approved!)

Our friends C & L were a hit with their costumes as well. L was dressed up all in cowboy-black, complete with black hat and boots, with a red bandana tied around the bottom of his face as if he was ready to hold up a stage coach. His wife C was dolled up in a beautiful off-the-shoulder embroidered Mexican dress, complete with a feathered fan and long earrings. Our friend S was as hot as the red dress she wore when we started to play Charades. She guessed so many of the clues -- and so quickly-- that she was dancing in her seat.

We had two guessing games-- one to guess the number of candy corn in a big cellophane bag, the other to guess the number of plastic spiders in a smaller cellophane bag. Now you'd think that those types of games would be too "corny" for adults? So wrong. Everyone had fun with it. We had gifts for the winners (the person who got closest to the correct number). And the person who was the farthest away in each game got either the bag of plastic spiders or the bag of candy corn.

In our local bookstore last week, I had found a book on Halloween traditions, recipes, "spells," and folklore. One of the chapters explained the ancient written "runes symbols." I copied each of the symbols (on separate pieces of pumpkin-shaped papers) then wrote the explanation of each rune on the back of the paper. The papers had sticky-backs, so I could display the runes on cardboard. Everyone studied the symbols, picked out the one that "spoke to them," and then read the explanation on the reverse side. It was interesting and fun, without being competitive.

Speaking of competitive, the ladies (once again) won in Charades. The final score was 29 to 26. This was the least number of points that the men have lost by, so far. But that's because the women's secret weapon had to leave the party early-- for another Halloween party. (Didn't I tell you that Halloween is very popular down here?) Anyway, A & D had to leave before we started Charades. Usually, A is the best player on our side-- she always knows all the songs, all the movies, and all the television shows. When our friend K heard that A had to leave for the other party, she said "Can the ladies win Charades without her?" (Well, we won by just three points, but a win is a win.)

The Groucho eyeglasses were a hit with the men, but they didn't want to keep them on. I also had black plastic hats with green hair "growing" out from the rim... a few of the guys wore those, but not for long. Our neighbor R took one look at his choices of either the Groucho eyeglasses or the black hat and he went home (next door) and came back with his own Indiana Jones-style hat. Which was a good thing, because one of the movies the women had to act out was "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" -- which we guessed without A being here because the woman acting it out kept pointing to R's hat. (A would've gotten those clues without having to use the hat as a visual aid.)

There were so many desserts on the table... all with a Halloween flair. I had Halloween paper-plates so everyone could take home some of the leftovers. I used to put out just paper plates and plastic utensils for these parties... till I realized how many beautiful dishes I had that weren't getting used. Now we use only china plates, real silverware, real glassware... all the good stuff. A little more work (but it all goes in the dishwasher) and it's fun to mix and match everything. I've bought extra silverware sets that I keep for parties-- right in Target and Wal-Mart... very pretty ones that didn't cost a fortune.

As party favors, everyone left with a book (a mystery, of course, since it's Halloween) and a little goodie-bag. The ladies got Halloween pot-holders and a pumpkin or ghost-topped pen that lights up when you write. The bags for the men had a Frankenstein or ghost light-up pen, with a bag of spiced/roasted peanuts. I try to pick out books for everyone that I think would suit them. So far, no one at our parties has asked for a different book (and I always have some in reserve for just that reason). And, everyone got to keep the Halloween accessories that they picked out when the party started. Everyone signed the guest book and left smiling... and asking when the next party will be.

Way after midnight now. The house is all put back together... dishes and glasses washed and put away, dining room chairs back where they belong, the kitchen is clean, the wet-bar is clean, and I've even vacuumed already. I hate to wake up the morning after a party and find the remains of the night before. And tonight was a fast clean-up-- I ate about six of those little chocolate mice, so I probably cleaned up in record time. (I'll be doing extra exercises tomorrow to pay for those mice, but they were worth it.)

Speaking of time... the clocks get turned back an hour this weekend. Which my husband did after the party broke up. So when we wake up in the morning, the clocks will have the correct time. Which means it will be getting dark earlier. Oh well... it's still summer here, as far as I'm concerned. It was very hot outside during our party, but the air-conditioning kept it comfortable in the house. I hope the trick-or-treaters get great weather tomorrow as well.

For as long as we've lived here, I don't ever remember seeing the kids having to put jackets on over their Halloween costumes. Which is a good thing. I remember when my sister and I were kids (living in NY) and Halloween was usually cold enough that a jacket was necessary. The store-bought costumes that we got in Woolworth's were usually not roomy enough to have a jacket underneath, so jackets or coats had to be added on top of the costumes. I don't think Walt Disney would have approved of wearing a brown corduroy coat over a pink Sleepy Beauty costume.

Oh well.... it's getting late now.... and it's time to call it a night. All the cats are sleeping, Gracie is sleeping... and my husband has been sound asleep for nearly two hours. I guess the chocolate-mouse-buzz is wearing off because I'm starting to yawn. There are more chocolate mice in the kitchen. But the thing to do is to walk straight to the bedroom without making a detour towards the mice. Which I will do. Honest.