Joe's Holiday?

I love holidays. Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Memorial Day, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and even the ones that aren't typically "celebrated" like Columbus Day and Veterans Day. The list goes on. They just make me feel like a kid again. I even think of birthdays as holidays. Joe, on the other hand, doesn't seem to care much for the celebration of it all. He's always been a great gift buyer, and he is the most thoughtful person I know, but he just doesn't get excited about holidays. As long as I've known him, the only holidays he seems to care for are St. Patrick's Day and his birthday. We used to celebrate his birthday for months! LOL Although that seems to be changing now that he keeps getting older. But I do think this Christmas will probably change him from the scrooge I've always teased him of being. I honestly believe that once he sees Hana's face light up at the sight of all those presents, he will forever be a changed man. This year she is going to understand what's going on and Joe even had me purchase a Santa outfit for him on clearance last year, so this Christmas should be a blast! I think he's slowly beginning to enjoy holidays through Hana's eyes.

But maybe Joe will never get as excited as me about Christmas or any of the other holidays mentioned above - except for one. See, I aspire to be that woman that has decorations for every single holiday. I wish my house could be totally decked out for every single occasion. Growing up, the only time the houses in our neighborhood were decorated was for Christmas. I LOVE Christmastime! I love all the lights! But this Halloween sparked a new interest for Joe and me both. Sure we had a giant spider spinning a web on our front porch, but up until Halloween night almost every house on our street had a cemetery in their front yard. "I want a cemetery!" I kept telling Joe and he would just roll his eyes and laugh at me. I would stand in the Halloween section of every store I went into and just dream of what I could do with all the creepy decorations and wonder to myself 'why are they so expensive?'

Then Halloween night came and we took Hana trick-or-treating (whereas last year we just stayed home and handed out candy) and suddenly the houses in the neighborhood that once had only headstones in the yard had been transformed into haunted houses. I felt like a child in all the excitement. I kept telling everyone we were with that I just had to join in the fun next year. I fully intended to go after-Halloween shopping and get as much as I could on clearance. I did, in fact, do a little shopping this year, but Joe is the one who went CRAZY!

He had to run up to Walgreens Sunday morning, which is literally down the road, and he was gone for about an hour. This was an errand that should have only taken a few minutes so I grew very concerned. I figured he, for some reason or another, would come home in a horrible mood. That was quite the contrary. He came home in a great mood and with bags upon bags of Halloween decor! Apparently it was 75% off. He even stopped at another store on his way home from work yesterday and bought more.

This was the box that I kept all of our Halloween stuff in:

And now this is what I'm keeping our Halloween stuff in:

I think we might have stumbled upon Joe's favorite holiday. Stay tuned for next year! Joe has big plans.