Nostalgia

This time of year just absolutely FILLS me with nostalgia! I'm sure it does for a lot of people, but there are just so many memories tied to this time of year for me...

Halloween
My mom has some fantastic, old, Halloween decorations that she puts up around our house, I'm pretty sure they're ones that she grew up with, and it just isn't Halloween at my house until these decorations are put up!
Check out these beauties :)

This guys a keeper, definitely. Anything orange on him is textured, like a felt or some kind of velvet. It's fantastic.

I was house sitting for some friends for a couple of weeks and when I came home this greeted me on my bathroom mirror....someone thinks they're pretty funny I expect...

This guy is the newest addition to the collection. He has a motion sensor so when people walk by he drops on a string and makes creepy noises, his legs wiggle and his eyes light up red. Can we say creeeepy???? My dad thinks it's hilarious. My sister and I, not so much....

I'm not very creative when it comes to my costumes, I never have been. I much prefer easy over cool or the wow factor. I just don't get into it like others do, I never have. I can't even tell you how many years in a row I was a black cat. I just wore all black, mom bought me some $2 cat ears, made a tail out of some black fabric and stuck it in my pants, and painted my nose and whiskers with black eyeliner. Bam. Black cat perfection :)
I think there was a Sacajawea thrown in there one year, or maybe it was Pocahontas...I don't think I was ever a princess. That was always my sister's territory, and she played it well! Tyler, being a paper boy, often went just as that, and used his paper bag to carry all his candy. I thought it was brilliant.
Once we were dressed up my folks took us to the Bibleland Carnival, back when it was called that. Oh dear, I just said back when....I'm not old enough for that!
Anyhoo, we'd head out there and play the games and get the candy. I vividly remember playing a bean bag game where you had to toss a bean bag through a hole in Goliath's head....creepy right?
And I'm pretty sure there was one where you had to crawl through the belly of Jonah's whale. Yeah, it was quality stuff :) We never really went trick-or-treating except around our neighborhood. I think we were probably just wimps because it's always so cold/snowing on Halloween :) That probably also factored into my costume choice. What will fit under my winter coat/what will I not get frostbite in?


The Musical
The High School Musical was my sport. I am not an athletic person, I am a musical person and every year I was in the musical. I played suave and sophisticated characters, ranging from a goose with a death sentence,  a townsperson with a fabulous hat, a sausage curl girl (that's exactly how it was worded on the cast list) and a magically alive plate. Like I said, suave and sophisticated :)
Auditions were the first full week of school and the cast list was posted that Friday, which was the longest day of my life that week! They didn't post the list until about 2 minutes before school was out, and I'm sure I didn't learn anything on those days, not when I was distracted with thoughts of who got what part, and did I get any lines or am I just a chorus member?
But then the bell would ring and it was a mad dash down to the auditorium to see the list. My junior and senior year my last class was across the hall from the auditorium, and I could see Mr. Shoemaker taping the list to the doors, but it was too far away to read anything. Fortunately that last class was show choir and pretty much everyone in that class auditioned for the musical and Mrs. Bauer knew that once that list went up we were useless so she quit working for the day, but she didn't let us leave the classroom until the bell rang.
Then the bell rings and you make a beeline through the choir room doors across the hall to the list. Your heart is pounding and you have to decide, am I going to look at the leads first or the chorus first? You always hope you're name is on the leads list, but you don't want to be disappointed so you're tempted to scan the chorus first. But you can't do it. Like a magnet you're eyes are drawn to the list of everyone who got leads. My name was only on the leads list once, senior year, and it was amazing :) I'll never forget the shock. I had actually gotten a lead part! I always knew that I wasn't the best actor. Music was my forte, which is why I always did the musical and usually not any of the plays. So I never truly expected to get a lead part, no matter how badly I wanted one, because my acting wasn't near as good as my classmates.
But senior year was my year.
I was the villain, and a kangaroo, it doesn't get any better than that :)

And then you spend two months of evenings practicing, and practicing, and practicing! Sleep was lost, homework was put off, a social life (unless your friends were in the show) was not an option. It was hard work, it was frustrating, it was exhausting....it was a blast!

Seussical The Musical - A combination of Dr. Seuss's famous stories, and I was Sour Kangaroo (that's me in the middle with the apron and bow)

My bestie Bethany (a bird girl) and I posing the theme song "Oh the thinks you can think!"

You couldn't pay me to go back to high school. There was more drama backstage than there was in the actual production, but if I had to go back, it would be during musical season :)


Marching Band

Both my younger brother and sister have done marching band in high school and they both play the trumpet. This means that mom and dad and I are band groupies. It's true, I have a t-shirt that says so!

We go to the parades and exhibitions and competitions all over the state, and it's a lot of fun. A lot of the eastern schools (Omaha and Lincoln) get pretty flashy with their shows, and they're mini productions of their own. In other words, they have a lot of money and put more emphasis on the flash and sparkle than the quality of marching and music. But as dad says, "At least we're the biggest" :)

We sit through wind and rain and cold and sun all to support our band geeks :) What's great is the dads who are at the Saturday afternoon competitions with their wives and are watching the competition but listening to the Husker game through their headphones. There's always one, but usually there's more and you can always get a score update when you need one :)

The Holidays

And then of course there's Thanksgiving and Christmas. Thanksgiving usually consists of a trip down to my uncle's ranch in Kansas where the Troyer family gathers for lots and lots of food in the church basement and an evening hayrack ride and bonfire. And a real bonfire, not a pit fire. I may or may not be a bonfire snob. A bonfire is so big you have to stand ten feet away it's so hot, and you can't jump over it. That's a bonfire. Just saying...

And Christmas is decorating the tree, forcing the dog into a sweater and the annual CLCT (Christmas Lights Creeping Tour) around town :)

There's nothing like this time of year for bringing up memories of the distant, or not-so-distant past, filling you up with that warm fuzzy feeling like a sip of hot cider in front of the fireplace.
These are the days we will remember and I thank God that He has blessed me with these days to remember.