Hallowe'en Party

Last Friday, Josh and I (with the help of some wonderful friends) hosted our very first Halloween Party! Normally, I don't get into decorating for or celebrating Halloween, but we decided to use the holiday as an excuse to get together with friends and have a little spooky fun!

My sister, Morna, and our friend Ali both helped to pull this shindig together. We decorated with lots of fun vintage items as we were going for kind of a "Steampunk Halloween" theme.

For food, we had lots of fun snacks and hors d'oeuvres, including pinwheels (Eye of Newt), pickles wrapped in corned beef and cream cheese (Chopped Snake), Monterey Jack Fondue, Baked Potato Soup, and special cupcakes made by Ali.

 

The "Shards of Glass" cupcakes turned out SO well. Ali did an amazing job, and they tasted even better than they looked! 

For the rest of the decor, we just hung more faux-spiderwebs, lit lots of candles, and turned down the lights. It's amazing how quickly a place can transform by just doing those simple things!

 

I pulled some of our creepiest books out to display on the table, among them were "Phantom of the Opera," "Complete Poems of Edgar Allen Poe," and "Sherlock Holmes."

  We had quite a few friends come over, and everyone dressed up!

 Josh and I were Bert and Mary Poppins! That's my brother in the background photo-bombing us. He was dressed up as an old man, complete with a cane and an ugly sweater! His girlfriend Melissa was also dressed up like an old lady and she brought a walker! It was pretty hilarious to see them come up the stairs with those costumes.  

 

 My favorite part of the evening was playing a game called "Snip, Snap, Dragon!" This game dates all the way back to 16th century England. You place a bowl full of rum and raisins on the table, and then light it on fire! The object of the game is to reach into the "fire" to grab a raisin, at the risk of burning your fingers. It's scary because the flames are very convincing, but they are nowhere near as hot as a real fire. You grab a flaming raisin and pop it into your mouth to put the fire out! There's an old poem that is recited while playing.

Just for fun, here's a video I took while the game was taking place. It gives you a better idea of how it's played!