Highlights of Autumn 2014

Our Garden Harvest

Birthdays

Too much icing

Crisp Fall Walks

Halloween

Early Frost

Halloween 2013

Halloween snuck up on Chrissy and I this year as my favorite girl was sick for nearly the whole month of October. With just a few hours left before the 31st we attempted to get in the spooky mood by carving jack o lanterns.

Getting Stabby

Chrissy's pumpkin turned out pretty good while my bat cut-outs didn't match my expectations. To offset the poor production quality I made it into a multi material art piece.

Now feeling the 'spirit' of the season we took ourselves out for beers and a scary theater show - the excellent Dead Centre of Town. The activities seemed to do the trick as we went from being blase to Halloween to excited for the next day. 

Arriving home from work on the 31st Chrissy and I set-up our candy treats in preparation for the kids and donned our costumes.

Rosie the Riveter

Doctor Stu

In our excitement of getting ready we kind of blanked on the time and soon realized that we were actually way ahead of schedule. Chrissy boded her time through quality assurance testing while I had my own treat.

Just a note if you are looking into buying a cheap doctors outfit - the crotch really likes to 'bunch up'.  I wouldn't consider this optimal for giving out candy to kids. Larry David feels my pain.

During the night we ended up getting 95 kids come to our door. There were plenty of Power Rangers, Spider Men, and Princesses. Chrissy waited near the door giddy to greet the children always on the lookout for a special visitor.

And then we saw an SUV pull into our driveway and our nieces Gabby and Michaella get out. They were getting pretty tired but did their best to match Auntie's excitement.

Eventually the activity at our door began to slow and Chrissy and I took a moment to capture our first Halloween together as a married couple.

Halloween

For me this had to be the least built-up Halloween ever. As a man of a certain age without kids there really isn't that much to look forward to other than scantily clad women, and if I wanted that I would just goto Earls or the bar or something.

So it was with a high level of apathy that I entered the weekend.  Thankfully, Christina was able to break me out of that funk with some simple Halloween activities.

Friday night before the pagan holiday Christina and I popped over to Sobeys to pick out some sacrificial pumpkins in which to make Jack O'Lanterns.  We chose a couple nice plump ones and started to work on them.

 The horror, the horror.

 Stu's pumpkin

 Chrissy and her cat pumpkin.

 The finished product.

Spooky! 

 Just to add to the experience and further deepen the pain of the carved pumpkins I was drinking the lifeblood of their fallen brothers: Pumpkin Ale was great.

For the Saturday night Christina and I decided to head out to the Overtime Bar and Grill in Sherwood Park for a duelling pianos pirate themed party. Value Village hooked us up with some sweet accessories.

Christina's mean pirate face.

 The dread pirate weird neck pillaging the country side.

At the bar I cam across this dude in the awesome Goonies costume. As he walked by I gave out the "Hey You Guys" call. Out of nowhere he rewarded me with a Baby Ruth candy bar. It was quite the moment.

Finally, on Monday night (Halloween) Christina and I donned the pirate gear again to give out candy at her place. We had 85 kids come through with my favorite being a little guy dressed as a skunk. Near the end of the night there was a special visitor as Christina's only niece, Gabriella, showed up. Although you can't tell from this picture Gabby was happy to see Chrissy.

 Gabby and Alex (dad).

After a slow start it turned out to be a pretty good weekend. So, Thanks to Chrissy for making my Halloween fun. You are the best.

Halloween

It was a busy and fun Halloween this year. Even though Sunday was the big day I did most of my celebrating on Friday. In the afternoon we were encouraged to dress up at work. I didn't really plan to, but decided at the last second to go by some facial makeup and join in the fun. Here's the staff photo. Melody in the middle, as Cruella deVille won our office competition with her twin boys as accessory dalmatians.

 We went for drinks at Sherlock Holmes right after work and things got a little crazy. Jeff was feeling fine.

 Melody wasn't overly impressed with his actions and disciplined him appropriately.

 Melody's bling was all real. That's just how she rolls.

 That Friday night we went to the big blowout Halloween Howler party at the Shaw Conference Centre. The headlining act that night was scheduled to be Brett Micheals of Poison fame. Showing no creativity I decided to dress as Brett Micheals. Of course that means I have to dress like a greasy idiot and wear makeup. The ladies were all to happy 'get my face on'.

 Christina's friend Mary was in charge of my makeup. I think she got a perverse kick out of the job.

 In full scumbag mode as Brett Micheals.

My lovely make-up team. Mary the Nascar babe and fraulein Chrissy.

 World tour to Ocktoberfest?

 The third lady in my groupie harem (a guy can wish) Sandra the lion tamer.

  The ladies - all looking in different directions. So much to see.

  I think Christina liked my goofy outfit.

 I was not the only guy dressed as Brett. I think I stopped and posed with at least 3 other guys dressed similar.

 And now some of my favorite costumes. As with all pics, click to make larger.

And my personal favorite, which is terribly offside.

This dude was dressed as Linda Blair from the Exorcist and kept yelling profanity from the movie while stabbing herself. He actually had a team of people with him that carried him on a gurney/bed for the night.

Good work.

And for those who care. Brett Micheals was absolutely horrible. Listening to him sing Sweet Home Alabama actually killed Skynard again.