October 1st marks
the beginning of the Halloween season in the Leon Spears household and it is our favorite time of year. Some of our decorations are spooky, some not so much. I try to use lots of fall-ish stuff so it can hold-over into the month of November too. We have very important Halloween traditions that must be followed every year. Last night we watched "the Legend of Sleepy Hollow," (the old Bing Crosby Disney version) and we're saving "the Great Pumpkin" for closer to the 31st. We've already
read "the Witchy Broom" (yes, aloud...mr. b is a good sport) which is my favorite scary story from childhood. My first pumpkin (from September) rotted, but there are plenty more to take his place. I love the Cinderella pumpkins, they just seem magical to me. Since Leon ate a squash last year, I tried to keep them all contained (and not so close to the ground) this time around. So far, so good. One thing that makes me sad is it seems like lots of people are anti-Halloween these days. I guess I understand where they are coming from with the p.o.v. that it is the devil's holiday. The funny thing to me is that my devout Freewill Baptist grandparents (who didn't even believe in tv) got the biggest kick out of Halloween of anyone I know. I have vivid memories of dressing up and going to their house for treats every year. I grew up thinking that if they were for it, it was right up there with Christmas!
I have to give all credit for this project to my brilliantly creative uncle who originally posted these pictures on Facebook. He had seen some vintage devil lights a few years back, but at the price of $200, he passed them up. After lamenting this decision through the years, he decided to put his creativity to the test and make some of his own. First, he got $3 Santa lights at his local Dollar Store. He had seen these plastic devil heads for cheap and knew just what to do with them. He made a template for the holes (based on the Santas) and cut holes into the Devil heads. Then he popped in the lights and voila! I think this is a very cool example of taking inexpensive every-day objects and transforming them into something totally wicked (sorry for the pun). 
