More Halloween Cookies

Happy Foodie Friday, Halloween lovers! I found today's beautiful photo posted over on the Facebook page, Halloween Magic - Hocus Pocus! These cookies aren't quite as fancy as the last batch I posted, but they're still quite lovely....and definitely adorable! I really enjoy the classic colors and familiar shapes, especially the lil' ghosts. 

Animal Kingdom Trick-or-Treat

I love Halloween and I love sloths...so a little sloth dressed in a devil costume with a ghostly candy bag warms my heart. And yes, little anteater....raisins do NOT make good Halloween treats, lol. 

Accidental Hanging Claims Boy

I was recently perusing old newspaper articles when I came upon this Associated Press story printed in the October 30, 1977 edition of the Herald-Dispatch (Huntington, WV). Warning: This story is pretty tragic. While I usually try to capture and share the beauty and magic of the Halloween season here on the blog, I think we sometimes all need a reminder that life isn't always perfect. 

Leslie Methodist Church, Google Images

DUNN, N.C.---A church Halloween carnival "house of horrors" became grim reality for a 13-year-old boy who apparently accidentally hanged himself, authorities said.

Keith L. Norris strangled on a fake noose which was rigged in a plywood booth and intended to scare visitors by making it look as though someone had been hanged. The boy, who had been playing the part of a hanged person, was found on his knees, suspended by his neck from an inch-wide nylon parachute strap tied to resemble a noose.

He would have been 14 on Halloween Day.

"It looks as if he was leaning into the noose and just slowly lost consciousness," said Dr. Brad B. Randall of the state medical examiner's office who performed an autopsy on the boy Friday.

The death was ruled an accidental asphyxiation.

Norris' limp body was discovered about 9:15 p.m. Thursday, shortly after the end of a Halloween carnival sponsored by the Leslie Methodist Church.

Charles C. Matthews said his 13-year-old son Marchie was the first to realize something was wrong with Norris.

"Marchie said he walked by once and the boy looked like he was playing," the father said. "Marchie was going to take out some trash, and when he came back the boy was in the same position, on his knees, so he called somebody to look at him."

G. Floyd Barefoot, who  was cleaning up after the festival, was called to look at the boy.

"I tried to revive him. I gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, trying to get air back into him. Tried to get it going, but it weren't there," Barefoot said.

Dracula's Pez

Happy Vampire Week! Halloween may officially be over, but the spooky fun lasts all year long here at Theresa's Halloween Wonderland. Let's kick off this month's theme week with an original art piece by Tyler Davis, entitled, "How Would You Eat Pez." Davis originally listed prints of the charcoal and gauche creation to his Etsy store in March of 2008. If I worked for the advertising department at Pez, I'd definitely be giving this young man a call!

Goodbye, Halloween 2016

Well, its gone. Halloween is over for another year. I tried to pack in as much Halloweeny fun as possible, but like every year, I still feel like I just didn't get enough done. I didn't go to enough attractions. I didn't watch enough spooky movies. I didn't blog enough. I didn't make the most out of the short, precious time that is the Halloween season.

I'm sure a lot of you Samhainophiles can relate---I always look forward to Halloween, but the coming of the actual October 31st date is mixed with a sense of dread. It feels like an ending more than a time of accumulated celebration. I always get really depressed and unmotivated around the end of October and into early November. Being depressed and unmotivated is especially hard during this time of year because its also one of our busiest, lol. So, I'm slowly trying to get through it, and I'm hoping that returning to this blog, as well as my paranormal blog, will bring me out of that post-season funk that I always fall into. At least there's one silver lining to look to....there's plenty of time to plan for Halloween 2017!

Luke's First Trick-or-Treat

Today my sister tagged me in this Facebook Memory that popped up on her feed, and I just had to share it with you all! This is my son, Luke, all dressed up for his very first trick-or-treat during Halloween 2010!

This wasn't Luke's first Halloween, however. When I was pregnant with Luke, the doctors gave us the estimated due date of October 31, 2009. I was thrilled at the possibility of having a Halloween baby. As things would turn out, that wasn't even close to what happened. I went into early labor with Luke at 28 weeks. My doctors managed to stop him from being born in August....but after a month-long stay in the hospital, I still ended up having Luke early. He was born on September 21, 2009, around 5 weeks before his projected Halloween birthday.

Due to an infection and some other complications from his premature birth, Luke spent some time in the NICU. When we were finally able to take him home, he was, for the most part, a fairly strong and healthy lil' guy. However, being born at the start of cold and flu season and having a compromised immune system, we were advised to keep in away from people as much as possible. So, when Halloween rolled around, I had to make the decision to NOT take him trick-or-treating. As much as I love Halloween, it was an easy decision to make, lol. Obviously, I wanted to keep my baby healthy, but since he was only a month old, he couldn't eat any of the candy, anyway. I resisted the urge to dress him up, and just put a cute pumpkin outfit on him. Since the start of trick-or-treat was fairly warm, I brought him outside for a few minutes to meet some neighbors he hadn't met yet, and then took him inside.

Therefore, it wouldn't be until Halloween 2010 that he'd finally be old enough to go out. We took him to Toys R Us where I paid way too much for a pirate costume, but it was adorable. We held up several choices of costume for him to pick from and he reached for the pirate. Unfortunately, that year was a little cold, so most of his outfit was covered with a blanket. Still, he got lots of lollipops that year, which he was allowed to have under strict supervision, and mommy got lots of other candy that he wasn't allowed to have, lol. He seemed to really enjoy the trick-or-treat process, and even managed to eke out some mumbled syllables that sounded enough like 'trick-or-treat' to elicit plenty of 'awws!' from people. It was, and always will be, one of my favorite Halloweens. 

Fancy Halloween Cookies

This are some darn fancy Halloween cookies! These would be great to serve at an upscale, yet spooky, dinner party....but who could have the heart to actually EAT them?! They're more art than food! Anyway, this example is from the Cookie Connection website, said to be inspired by the work of Arty McGoo and Sweet Ambs.