Halloween Season Starting

Fall officially starts this week on September 22nd,  and the weather finally changed here to more autumn, with some much needed rain and cool weather forecast all week. I love that. In fact, it motivated me to spend some time on one of my favorite holidays that arrives on October 31st, Halloween. It isn't just the ending of hated summer weather that got me up and into Halloween. The stores already have their Halloween merchandise for sale, including decorations, candy and assorted "stuff" that is quite clever if not something one needs.

That would includes things like the talking eye flashing witch I found at a thrift store for a couple of dollars months ago. Goodwill, Am Vet and other thrift, charity stores are treasure troves for finding decorations for Holidays. People sometimes discard their decorations when used only once or not even at all, so the condition is pristine in many cases.

I think most of the many Halloween decorations I now have were obtained that way. My house will  again this year display many sound and animated Halloween characters along with standard decorations that have been in fashion for years. There are both some new and old decorations in that mix

I like to decorate form the holidays because my mother always did it. The tradition was passed down to me, and now my own daughter, always enthusiastic about decorating the inside and outside of the house when a child, does it for herself in her own home. New Orleans is a city that loves to decorate and most people there do. Here in Portland, it is much rarer, but I still have the desire to decorate. This weekend I hauled the Halloween decorations from my attic and have set up (too many) of them. Though decorating is time and energy challenging, I always feel reborn after doing so, The house looks different and I suspect it feels the same way.

This weekend I also went shopping for Halloween candy and I made my first fall dessert, a pumpkin cake. Baking can be a chore most times but for holidays it is fun, a catharsis of sort, releasing in me many comforting thoughts that remind me of the joy I had during the holidays when I was a child. I am sure my own daughter will make Halloween cookies as she did when she was also a child.