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Growing up, my family never really celebrated Halloween. I have no memories of trick or treating and very little dressing up. It just wasn’t a think in our house, really. We were big on Christmas and, to this day, Christmas gets me excited pretty much year round.
The mister is a bit of a grinch. He starts dreading Christmas in the summer. He’s got some not so positive associations with things of Christmas past. As you can imagine that’s been a point of contention in our relationship. Every year, I ask him to hold his complaints to himself and at least be physically present (and silent if necessary) to celebrate my favorite holiday. Meanwhile, we never do anything for his favorite holiday, which is–you guessed it–Halloween!
This year, I decided to change that up. It’s not fair to insist on celebrating my favorite holiday, despite his hatred of it, and do nothing for Halloween. I had these grand plans and realized on the first trip to Target for decor that I was in waaaaaaaaaay over my head. It seems ridiculous to think that one can be overwhelmed at the idea of figuring out how to celebrate Halloween and yet there I was wandering aimlessly through Harry Potter Costumes and over priced crappy “spooky” fabric.
I managed to buy a few things, not enough to justify the $ 100+ bill I paid but that’s Target, right? You always think you’re going in with a $20 and coming out with change but it never ends that way. Ah well. Over the next few days I managed a halfway decent Halloween home makeover. Here, see for yourself.


I’m sad to say this took me hours of planning and putting up. I’m serious with the whole “I have no idea how to do Halloween” thing. You know what the crappy part is? I came up with some really great ideas…the day of….with no time to carry them out.
Check it: I realized that I have the perfect hair to pull off Bellatrix Lestrange.

Pardon the photo bomb. Always the prankster, that one ?
Mars would be a GREAT Dobby…other than the fact that Dobby is super friendly and Mars…isn’t). Maybe he’s The ears are perfect.

Zeus, I thought would be a great Chewbacca or I’d love to see him as a giant spider. Especially since the mister is terrified of spiders and that could be a great joke to pull on him 😉


But alas, at noon on Halloween with a lot more decor to go (what can I say? If I don’t wait until the last minute, it doesn’t get done), there was no time to pull of my fabulous master plan. Ah well, just means I have next year figured out, I suppose.
I decided, instead, I’d find a way to his heart through his stomach. Always a solid plan. Who doesn’t love a good sweet treat? Show me the one who disagrees and I’ll show you a lunatic. Soooo, in light of that, I now have a husband approved pumpkin dip to share with you! Actually…I have TWO!

The basic ingredients for both start out the same. In a bowl, mix together a can of pumpkin puree with a half cup of sour cream, 8 ounces of whipped cream cheese (or regular cream cheese, softened), and a cup of powdered sugar.
I use whipped cream cheese because I don’t have this awesome mixer that my mom has. I NEED this in my life, and serious, you do too. I want this red one. They are so perfect, so smooth and easy to handle. They are durable and have some awesome attachments that allow you to do really cool stuff. While I’m remembering, I’m headed to add one to my amazon cart. Don’t forget to get yours too and you can thank me later 😉
These basic ingredients actually makes a pretty great dip all in it’s own right, but keep reading and it gets even better…

I took half of the mixture and seperated it out to make the different dips. If you only want to make one, skip this step and double the following ingredients of whichever dip you want.

Maple Cinnamon
1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon powdered ginger
Marshmallow Fluff
2 “heaping” tablespoons marshmallow fluff
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
Garnish with edible sprinkles or candied walnuts, if desired.
Serve with graham crackers. I used these Schär Gluten Free Honeygrams and they were delish! Schar happens to be one of my all time favorite gluten free brands and these graham crackers did NOT disappoint.
I fully expected the mister to devour the maple version because he’s obsessed with maple but he actually preferred the marshmallow version. If I’m honest, so did I. It was pretty amazing. But really, both were fab and you can’t go wrong with either one.
We followed our festive food with a Halloween appropriate viewing, pausing for the ocassional trick or treater to stop by and ring the doorbell, thereby setting off a choir of dog barks.
The mister loves scary movies and I get scared of kids’ shows sometimes…Yeah, I’m a badass like that. He chose for us to watch Scream because he thought it was so old and the effects were so outdated there was no way it would scare me.
And… he was wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. So wrong.

I spent most of the movie with my head under my weighted blanket screaming at the tv, “STOP BEING AN IDIOT!” because we all know that works. I might have had trouble sleeping that night…and being home alone the following evening…but all in all, I did pretty well. Thank God for this weighted blanket without which, I’d probably still be awake from that stupid movie. I’m still obsessed with this weighted blanket for the way it calms me down and helps me sleep.
I realized watching how excited and happy the mister was that sometimes loving someone well means making sacrifices, big and small. It means being willing to consider what the other wants or is important to them even when the subject, because of such differences, causes contention. Sometimes loving people well is watching a scary movie with your head under a blanket knowing you’re going to have trouble sleeping that night.
Love is generous. Love is kind. Love doesn’t wait until it gets its own needs met before it’s willing to try to meet the needs of the other. It doesn’t keep score. For me, love meant putting effort into learning how to celebrate Halloween and making it special for him because it means something to him.
This year, Halloween was passable. But I have plans for next year to be epic: Bellatrix Lestrange style. You’re gonna wanna stick around to see that. Seriously, you should subscribe to make sure you don’t miss it. Check out that subscription box in the sidebar before you go so you can get notified of new posts.
Oh, and if you make these dips, tell me how you like ‘em.

Future Bellatrix OUT!
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