Hello everyone! Spooky season is upon us! I love this time of year, October is the gateway for my three favorite holidays! I love decorating the house, searching Pinterest for fun, but not gross, themed foods, hunting for costumes, walking around the neighborhood and viewing all the fun Halloween displays and binging ghost-hunting shows 24/7! The temperatures begins to drop, the leaves start to change, and there is a crispness to the air. Sadly, the change is relatively minor here in the Texas piney woods, but it's there. Seeing the occasional yellow or red leaf is enough to drive me into a full-blown fall frenzy! I can only imagine how excited I'd get by a full-blown maple tree somewhere in New England. It's just one of the many reasons I'm hoping to relocate to Maine. I'd love to celebrate the holiday surrounded by a riot of colorful leaves and a beautiful, old New England home. Perfection!
Of course, Thanksgiving and Christmas will be here before you know it. I think the reason I love this time of year so much is because my parents did a wonderful job of making holidays magical for us growing up. I want to recreate some of that magic and keep it going. Our traditions keep up bound to those we have loved and lost, and sharing those traditions with our children, and our families, keeps our loved ones alive through the magic we've created in their memories. Over the next few months, because this is the time of year I tend to want to connect to people the most, I am sure I'll be sharing memories, family traditions, photos, and maybe even a special recipe or two. We've been discussing the idea of creating new traditions, as well. Our family has grown so much over the past year or two, after all, and building new traditions together, to blend in with our old ones feels like a beautiful way to bring our newest members into the fold. I'd love to hear about any special traditions from our readers, as well. Do any of you have any favorite traditions you share with your families? Or perhaps something that is special to your heritage that holds a beautiful meaning to you?
For Halloween, I don't have any special, unique traditions, however, we still have ones that have been cultivated over the years, often completely by accident. For instance, over the past years, as my kids are now all adults and some have their own growing families, we pick a night when the kids come to the home base, and we all sit down and carve pumpkins together. Some are free-form, and some have fun patterns that we have printed up. My oldest son, my daughter-in-law and I usually make at least one new homemade decoration together, though, to be honest, Julie does most of the work as she is a very talented artist. We also start decorating in September, which is a bit early for most. But we've convinced ourselves that somehow it will usher in the milder fall weather. This year I've been searching for themed dinners to incorporate into our celebrations since all my children are full-fledged adults. I'm considering going with a "Sleepy Hollow" theme, where I would decorate the dining room table in dark cloths, candles, and pumpkins and serve a decadent meal of roasted meats and potatoes, whisky-glazed pears, spiced poached red pears, pies, and cider donuts. We could finish up the evening with a fun Halloween movie, something fun like, "Hocus Pocus" perhaps.
Whatever your plans are, I wish you a very happy and safe Halloween!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kimberly Ann Campbell
Kimberly Ann Campbell is an up-and-coming author, who has written three published best-selling novels with her best friend, and co-author Jenna Morrison, in which they originally used the pseudonym, Kenna Campbell. Born in Houston, Texas, and raised in the small town of Huffman, she grew up in a close-knit and supportive family and is now a proud wife, mother, and grandmother to her own beautiful family. Writing had been something she had always wanted to do, and thanks to her natural storytelling abilities, along with encouragement from her husband and a determined bestie, she finally felt brave enough to take that journey. After a brief hiatus, the duo is back again, ready to share the ideas they have been excited about for years with their audience.
Outside of writing, Kimberly works passionately as a preschool teacher, and enjoys cooking, baking, painting, drawing, listening to music, anything involving magic or a good ghost story, camping, watching movies, and binging comedies. She has a soft spot for children and animals and enjoys spending her free time with her family and pets.
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