Halloweenniversary

 HELLO FAMILY and FRIENDS!

It has been a wonderful week of festivities and fun. I thought I'd never make it through October, but here I am! 

Work

I released a bunch of new gamebooks in honor of Halloween this week. One was an expansion for my apocalyptic mutant themed game. Another was an adventure book for my fantasy game. and the last one was a family-friendly Halloween themed game where you play kids on Halloween night entering a haunted house. I also put out a print and play game called Castle Dracula. You print out a bunch of paper miniatures and run it through Dracula's Castle like a typical minis dungeon crawl. 

Dungeons and Dragons

On Tuesday night Taylor and I had our usual game of Dungeon and Dragons. My character finally defeated the evil vampire Strahd and made it back home to his small town. It was a great final session for this campaign. This is the first time Taylor or I completed an entire campaign in any roleplaying game. It felt good to complete this long story we've been playing for weeks. A great precursor to Halloween. 

Fear Itself

Thursday night, Taylor and I met again for a special Halloween party/game night over video chat. I ran a roleplaying game called Fear Itself where everyone plays normal boring folks trying to survive against some sort of scary situation. I made up a story where a glowing green radioactive asteroid brought dead tissue back to life. So, Taylor ended up fighting a disembodied hand, feet, a rolling severed head, etc. It turned out to be a really great game with a lot of atmosphere. Felt sort of like The Blob meets Night of the Living Dead. For the "party" I dressed up in my Chewbacca suit. I had pumpkin pretzels, Frankenstein reses, and a spiced fall/winter type drink. 

Nightly Movies

Amber and I watched a bunch of spooky movies on the nights I wasn't hanging out with Taylor. We sort of had a disembodied hand theme starting with The Beast With Five Finger (starring Peter Lori), and then also The Crawling Hand (a terrible low-budget B-movie), and finally Dr. Terror's House of Horrors. Growing up, I remembered watching some Halloween special on TV with mom that showed a bunch of clips from old horror movies while a spooky narrator talked about them. One was a crawling hand that attacked a guy and he threw it in a fire. However, the hand still came back and forced him into an auto accident while driving. For years I've wondered what that movie was and have tried to find it. Finally, this year we watched it. It was one of the story segments in Dr. Terror's House of Horrors. Christopher Lee was the guy getting attacked. Of course! It is one of the many Anthology horror movies that came out from Amicus during the time (a company that used all the same actors, directors, crews, and sets as Hammer horror.) So far I've seen 3 of these movies. The House That Dripped Blood. Asylum (which also has disembodied body parts attacking people), and Dr. Terror's House of Horrors. The House That Dripped Blood is my favorite of the bunch still. 

Halloween

On Halloween, I got up that morning, made breakfast (I warmed up Pumpkin Pancakes Amber made me the night of Taylor and my party), and watched the new Creepshow Animated Halloween Special on Shudder. It was excellent. Just like the old horror comics. After that, I read some actual horror comics I got this week from the comic shop. They know me so well they often hold onto things "in case I want them." Lol. I then carved a pumpkin and roasted the seeds in the oven. For the rest of the afternoon, I played a horror video game on my computer, thanks to Taylor who invited me to a new service that allows you to play newer video games through streaming without having to buy a game system or fancy computer to run them. 

That evening, Amber and I went out for tea and then headed over to a friend's house for a Jamie Lee Curtis horror marathon. We ordered pizza and watched Halloween, Halloween 2, Prom Night, and The Fog. I loved all of them, of course, since I'd seen them all. Prom Night was probably the most fun of the bunch--but Halloween is a classic. 

Anniversary

On our Anniversary, we both woke up in the morning, having enjoyed an extra hour of sleep from daylight savings, and exchanged gifts. I got Amber a new tea set. I've been giving her little tea-themed presents all October long. It was all leading up to the new tea set! 

Amber got me a new war game called The Amerika Bomber. It is an alternate history game about the concept of Germany developing the atomic bomb first and therefore having enough military power to eventually attack America. It makes me think of Man in the High Castle on Amazon Prime Video. Anyway, the game looks amazing and I can't wait to try it. It is designed for solo play. Bonus! And it has some of the coolest speculative art of any game I've seen. Amber also got me some new candles and bath bombs. 

In the afternoon we went to the botanical gardens. I love the gardens and hiking this time of year. I love the look of the bare trees. The sound of the wind. It was very nice up there. 

That evening we had leftover pizza and watched a romance movie.  

Gearing Up for the Holidays

I am so excited for the holidays this year and I'm not exactly sure why. I guess the peace and hope for the season just already feels like a good balance against all the bad we've seen all year. I'm simply happy to be alive and be able to enjoy my life with everyone I love.

I've been pondering on memories of Christmases with family. They always seem to mostly involve me, Taylor, and Jacob playing together. Playing whatever new version of Clue one of us got. Playing with my new Star Wars toys (Star Wars and Christmas have just always gone hand-in-hand for me! Haha!), making crappy home movies with our new toys. I miss those days. Luckily, I get to see Taylor every week. 

I'm getting into the season already by drinking holiday teas and coffee. I'm trying very hard to refrain from setting up Christmas right away so Amber's head won't explode! lol. She's a "no decorations until after Thanksgiving" kind of person. And this will be the first year we really try and decorate the house now that we have our tree and lights and things out of the storage at the Patterson's 

Anyway, whether we are together or not this coming holiday season, I look forward to the time we will spend together, in person, over video chat, on the phone, whatever works! Maybe we could even have a Christmas party online! 

Love you all.