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New Halloween Additions

There have been a few additions to the Halloween decorations and bric a brac here at the Haunted Mansion, Rumsey Island edition. While searching my parent's basement boxes for my old VHS collection I came across a few things I kept. My parents no longer decorate for Halloween, which breaks my heart. But now these things are with me now, so....

At Barnes and Noble the other day, T had disappeared for 10 minutes. When we got home I found out why. She had found, at the counter, this really cool Halloween advent calendar she surprised me with.


It comes with this lil plush ghost for the days. Just look at 'im; he looks stoned on jack-o'-lantern stuffing or something. Or he's horrified he's stuck on this site because he didn't make it on Dinosaur Dracula...

Next is Gerald from Target. I first saw this preppy pumpkin-head scarecrow a few days after Halloween a couple years ago, and when I returned next to pick him up, he was gone. Liquidated unto Clearance. I shared a photo of Gerald with T, months later, and she somehow found him at a thrift shop, clearance tags and all. It would be kismet for Gerald to return to me... He's my boy.


Here's a random piece of Halloween history no one cares about but I'll share regardless. In elementary school, my first year at Dundalk Elementary, we went to a pumpkin patch in October. Clamoring along in thick mud, I eventually got stuck and lost my shoe in the patch. I think I may have even fallen, until some chaperone came over to help me out of my plight. I think I cried, maybe. I was 6.

Anyway, my cousin and I somehow made the local paper, the Dundalk Eagle while making jack-o'-lanterns from these pumpkins we just pulled from the patch.


I'm the smug one in the back left with the smile and what I think is a squash. I definitely did not pull a squash. I was enamored with pumpkins even at this early age, so there is no way I would've picked anything other than a nice, round pumpkin... My cousin Amber is the one in the middle with the head-sized pumpkin.

The next thing is a mask my mom had somehow picked up over the years. She kindly offered it up to me for a decoration. I have no idea the history of this mask, but I've found a pic online on someone's flickr account of their 1980 Halloween.


Finally, several days after Halloween we found a few jack-o'-lantern decorations at Wegmans for 7 bucks! They were marked $5 off at $25 but they rang up for 7. Even a couple of ladies working there walked over to our register because how cheap it rang up. I think word got around because as we were driving away we saw 3 employees pick up the final few jacks, even the broken one. He has a hole in back to place a large candle, or you can simply remove the lid. It feels made of clay or brick-like material. 

Lastly, I found this lil vampire pencil at Home Sense, unfortunately missing the key chain vampire. I still picked him up because he was marked down to 3 bucks. And I couldn't find them online at all. However I did find a jack-o'-lantern pencil online. This Knitmares pencil/keychain combo comes "handcrafted" out of Thailand. The vampire on this pencil gives me David Dastmalchian vibes for some reason... Anyway, this is him below. He looks so lonely.

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