Halloween: My Fourth Favorite Holiday

I love fall.  And by love, I mean it is my all-time favorite season.  There is just something about cold, crisp mornings and night-time coming at 5:00 that I love!  Not to mention Halloween, Thanksgiving, and football! 

Oh, football.  You were so much more fun when State was 7-0.  This past Saturday, Justin and I had tickets to the Alabama-Mississippi State game and decided at the last minute to sell them and tailgate on the quad at Alabama all day.  During our 13 hours outside (in the bitter cold), we met lots of interesting Alabama fans.  The nicest ones shared their Direct TV with us so we could watch the games, and gave us blankets to hang outside our tents to block the chilly wind. They were awesome. The meanest ones called us every expletive in the book and threw our cowbells on the ground. They were not so awesome. Such is college football.  Anyway, we still had fun tailgating and eating yummy deer meat, Dortitos, and my favorite, Nutter Butter ghosts!

Mom has been making these cookies since I was little- Nutter Butters dipped in white chocolate (with chocolate chip eyes I added!).  Considering I have very limited culinary abilities, this was my contribution to the tailgate, and they were a hit!  Delish.
Football season so far has been a lot of fun!  The day after I met Justin three years ago, we met back up at  a Mississippi State home game where I was selling concessions for my college social club.  Since then, we have always really enjoyed going to games together, and I am learning a lot and really getting into it!  We also have some aweosme friends around us who love State football too and who are always up to go along with us to games.

Excuse the one in the Alabama hoodie.  We still love him.

This Saturday, we are staying in T-town to watch the Mississippi State-Texas A&M game at Buffalo Wild Wings.  Yummm.

Now on to my next topic- my fourth favorite holiday!  At first, I couldn't figure out if Easter or Halloween would take the third spot in my ranking of favorite holidays, but unforunately, Easter won out and Halloween came in fourth.  I think this decision was heavily influenced by my love of new Easter dresses.  Nonetheless, I am a huge holiday enthusiast!  I love EVERY holiday, and decorate way too much for each one (but is there really such a thing as too much decoration?)  Sometimes I just don't understand why more people don't get excited about holidays.  I had lunch with one of our Art Department employees yesterday, and he told the group an awesome piece of life advice- "The more passions you have in life, the more alive you are."  I wholeheartedly agree, and holidays are one of my passions.  Every year, I have a list of Halloween costumes that I want to be, and the hardest decision is always in choosing who to be.  This year the list consisted of Rainbow Brite, Annie Oakley, the tooth fairy, the Black Swan, the Morton Salt girl, and Strawberry Shortcake.  I had originally decided on Rainbow Brite, but because I couldn't find a rainbow belt, the blue sparkly tutu did NOT work out, and I am broke, I pulled an outfit together from my closet this morning.  Since I have a maxi dress, long necklaces, and an abundance of flower headbands, I decided to be a flower child for work!  Not my most creative costume, but it did the job.

Also, I love face paint.

This year, I have compiled a list to help us all understand the importance of having just litte bit of Halloween spirit, and to embrace the childlike joy that comes with it.  I like to call them "Brittany's Rules of Halloween".

Brittany's Rules of Halloween!

Rule #1: Commit to the costume!

Do not halfway do your costume.  If you decide to be Katy Perry, I better see you with a blue wig on.  If you are a black cat, wear a tail!  I do not care if it is hard for you to sit down.  It's Halloween, and we make sacrifices for Halloween!  I wore Jesus sandals in 45 degree weather this morning.  Did I complain?  Yes.  Did I call Justin to bring me some close-toed shoes to work?  Absoutely not!  It's Halloween so I sucked it up!  And I ran fast to get inside buildings.

Rule #2: Do not be a Halloween hater!

Just because someone has more Halloween spirit than you does not give you license to make fun of people in costume. We must always remember that there are some people (adults, mind you) who choose to wear fairy wings on non-Halloween days just for the fun of it, not that I'm judging. On Halloween, you have the license to dress as crazy as you want, ALL DAY LONG (we'll cover this in rule #5).  So, I see you, 20 year old college student who is staring crazily at me.  You walk around campus every day in Nike shorts, even in 40 degree weather.  I do not make fun of you, so give me this one day to not look like the professional young lady I am, okay?

Rule #3: Candy for breakfast!

This rule is pretty self-explanatory.  Candy is acceptable at all times today!  I personally had Sweet Tarts, Laffy Taffy, and a Blow Pop all before 9 A.M.  I am on board for any holiday that makes eating candy for breakfast socially acceptable.  And as everyone knows, diets do not count on October 31st!  So go ahead- eat enough mini Snickers to equate to five regular-sized ones!  It's Halloween!

Rule #4: Pre-game it!

Who says we should only celebrate Halloween on October 31st?  ABC Family makes it easy to get into the Halloween spirit before Halloween!  This year, I've watched Hocus Pocus twice, Beetlejuice (favorite!), and half of the Scooby Doo movie before Justin made me turn the channel (he is obviously NOT a holiday enthusiast).  Browse Pinterest for sweet treats to bake!  Make all the funfetti cupcakes you and your neighbors will eat!  Decorate your house in early October, even.  This year, we have two scarecrows, pumpkins, black cats, and glitter leaves lining our porch.  The most important thing to remember is that you don't care what anyone else thinks.  If they think you're crazy, just know that you have more holiday spirit than they do, and you are a happier and more cool person than they could ever wish to be.  Just give a funfetti cupcake to these Halloween haters.

Rule #5: Halloween lasts 24 hours!

So don't just celebrate at night!  I listened to the Halloween Party Pandora station this morning when I got up, and Michael Jackson's Greatest Hits on my way to work (because he's kind of a creepy dude).  Halloween candy has been eaten, and I've already been to a costume contest!  Tonight, I'll give little kids candy (Lord, please let there be trick-or-treaters), dress my dogs up in their costumes, and pester Justin until he decides to throw a costume together.  And maybe we'll watch another Halloween movie?  The possibilities are endless!

Even if you don't celebrate Halloween, today is a fun day to dress up, eat candy, and act a little silly while you're on your sugar high.  Embrace it!  And just remember- the second-best holiday (Turkey Day) and the BEST HOLIDAY IN THE HISTORY OF EVER (Christmas, duh!) are coming up!  So that's reason enough to celebrate, right?

Also be checking Facebook for pictures of my super cute pups.  Hopefully they'll stay in costume for at least five mintues so Mom can get a good picture.