Halloween. I love Halloween, so much. There’s candy (I have a massive sweet tooth), there’s costumes (I like dressing up. I make my own.), and horror movies. I love horror movies. Good, bad, doesn’t matter, I will watch it. There’s pumpkin carving, which is ridiculously fun, partly because it’s so messy. I also like roasted pumpkin seeds. Honestly just the Halloween aesthetic overall is great. It’s also when you start getting fall scents at Yankee Candle, which I love way too much. It’s also when the first of the holidays shaped Reese’s peanut butter cups come out. And I swear, they taste better in shapes. Pumpkin, tree, heart, egg, whatever. They just taste better. And they are already delicious. I loved Trick or Treating as a kid. Now, I get to go Trick or Treating with my niece. We all go out to the Halloween stores to pick out her costume. She likes to remind people that she’s not really whatever she’s dressed up as. It’s just a costume, silly (she said that to my manager last year and I just about died laughing). Halloween is the perfect storm of all the things that I love.

Let me tell you, through my whole life I have always LOVED Christmas!! My degree of love for it is almost unhealthy. There is just something about all the happiness that makes me want to stay in the time forever.

I recall smelling all the pine scents from the candles and Fabreez. I also smell the muddy buddy that we will only make during Christmas time because it’ll make you gain 100 pounds in one sitting.

I can feel all the excitement when we go into the living room at 7am and see all the presents (Santa-my siblings are all younger) has left for us. I get to be around all my family members whom I don’t see that often.

I love to give gifts. Everyone likes getting them, but I also love giving them. Seeing that huge smile on people’s faces will just make my day. It’s always worth the cost and energy to get and wrap it.

To anyone who isn’t a fan of Christmas, I don’t understand. It is the merriest time of the year!!

The First writing assignment I chose is Holifaves which is to write about your favorite holiday. Personally, my favorite holiday is Easter. Growing up in a Catholic family and having attended Catholic school, Easter was one of the big holidays we celebrated at home, in the classroom, and at church. I know many people think of Christmas as their favorite holiday, but for me Easter was better. This holiday is, at least for our family, to have fun and play games and spend time together more than just giving and receiving presents. We still have Easter baskets, but they’re more full of fun little trinkets or candy and they’re not the main focus of the day. The focus of our day is going to church, celebrating the resurrection, and being together through the special time.

I do have to say, however, despite this aspect of Easter, my favorite part is still dying Easter eggs and having an Easter egg hunt. Being the youngest, I always had a little bit of a Headstart but once we were old enough, that went away. Something that never change in our rules during the hunt was that fouls have to be called. My family gets pretty competitive and somebody could end up a little bit hurt if we didn’t do this!

Even our pets got in on this holiday, having an Easter basket of their own with little treats and toys. One of them even liked to be part of the basket herself!  This was puff one of our cats who died about a year ago she was always very cute. The first Easter we had her, she climbed in the basket by herself and after that we quickly adopted the tradition to have a picture of her taken in a basket every year. It even got to the point where she would sit in the napkin basket that’s on our kitchen table! So here’s a picture of that:

2 Stars

Out of all the holidays I would have to say my favorite is Halloween. A strange one, I know. When I was younger I would love going to Party City and seeing the “wall of costumes”. I’d always get so excited over all the choices, all the possibilities. And lets face it, what kid doesn’t like free candy? As I got older I still enjoyed Halloween, hanging out with my friends having our yearly shaving cream fights… and still the candy. I was never one for the haunted houses, but I would love to decorate my house and today my apartment. Now that I am older I am usually the one handing out the candy, rather then receiving it. It is always interesting to see which characters, super hers, princesses, etc come to my door each year with there same smiles like I had. That is why I love Halloween.

I’m not sure if Breast Cancer Awareness Day is technically a holiday, but to me it is.

Breast Cancer Awareness Day is possibly the most influential day of my life, my grandmother was the biggest influence in my life and passed away of it when I was only three years old. Some people may question how I even remember this, but my parents were already divorced, so I looked to my grandparents as almost parent figures in my life. My grandmother was my favorite, we did make up, baked and played dress up together and of course she spoiled me, I was a grandmothers girl and she was my best friend growing up. Sitting in the hospital rooms making pictures for her, thinking that the art I made with my cousins, all of our get well cards, everything, we just thought it would make her better, we thought it would bring back our grammy to us. My last memory of her is brushing her teeth with almost a sponge on a stick in the hospital, then I remember her being gone. I went through a lot of struggles my senior year of High School, I struggled with depression, self harm and self esteem and image issues, but I always felt like she was there, that she was on my side. I knew that the fight I was fighting to get through this was not only for  me, but it was also for her. She wished for me and my cousins to apply to Sweet Briar college and to attend there, I went there and visited and applied and got accepted, even though I didn’t go there, I felt like I made her smile by just doing that for her. When I turned 18, I also got a tattoo. I got “Believe” with a breast cancer image which is showed below, I got it in memory of her. She taught me to believe in myself and everything I do, and to believe in the fight, never give up, no matter what it is.

So to me, Breast Cancer Awareness Day is a holiday. It’s a day where I remember everything good about her, all she influenced me, how she’s smiling down on me, I remember the legacy of the amazing women I not only got to call my grandmother, but my best friend in the entire world.

The crisp, cool air and the smell of food cooking in the house.  Walking into a steaming hot kitchen, along with the sounds of clanging pans and the ruckus of all of the out-of-state family members.

Food is on the stove, in the oven, and the turkey is being fried in the backyard. My dad is running in and out checking out the turkey with a cold one in his right hand. The football game is playing in the living room, the Cowboys are on as per usual.  My grandpa is kicked back in his lazy boy teasing the dogs, my aunt is hollering at her three kids who are always up to some kind of mischief, and my stepmom is slaving away in the kitchen ordering me around to help.

I also get summoned to the kitchen, especially when it’s time to add the marshmallows to the top of the sweet potato casserole — which of course is my favorite part of the dinner.

Finally, we all gather around to load our plates up with all of the goodies: green bean casserole, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, corn, turkey, and croissant rolls. (This is of course after we argue about who gets to go in and get their food first — it’s the polite thing to do ). Once the commotion of everyone getting their food is over, we sit down and have our feast. My grandpa has his plate back with him in his lazy boy chair — sharing it all with the dogs.

Once all of the meal has finished, I truck myself, full belly and all, to my mother’s house to have another meal. Forget the dessert when you have a second meal to attend to! I drive 20 minutes to join my mom and her boyfriend’s family for an equally as appetizing feast.

Soon as every meal has been vanquished and the desserts have been gnawed on, we go to bed in our tryptophan comas and sleep in heavenly peace until next year.

I’m thankful that once every year, the aroma of cooking food and the crispy cool air takes me back to the comfort of family and giving thanks.

Side note: this was my grandmother’s favorite holiday. When she passed away 3 years ago, I tried to keep the traditions of homemade food and assisting with keeping the spirit alive every Thanksgiving Holiday.