Curse My Antisocial Ways

As previously mentioned, Moonshot and I are big fans of Halloween. Each year our home is overrun by creepy decorations, and each year we put massive amounts of effort into our annual Halloween Party. It’s the one event that motivates my wife and I to open our home to a relatively large number of people. We begin planning next year’s theme almost as soon as one party ends. And while no one can fault us on our theme, and hopefully no one can complain about the fun level of our parties…it is clear that next year we need to spend more time focusing on our guest list.

Our first party was in 2003, the first year Moonshot and I lived together. We had about 25 people in our cute little home and quite frankly, any more would have been too much. We developed a murder mystery for the party and doled out clues throughout the evening. All in all it was a success, but it was overly structured. It was a lot of work to script the evening and in the end what the party needed was more freedom. We took note of this and began work on the next party.

There was no party in 2004 due to an impending wedding that Moonshot and I were planning that November. Much sadness, but everyone seemed to understand.

However, after our hiatus, we returned to form in 2005 armed with our experience from our first party. Our theme this time was Hollywood Horror Movies. Through a series of games, each person was “auditioning” for one of three roles in our film: Killer, Victim, or Hero. Each person decided prior to the party which role they would pursue and came dressed accordingly. We sent out overly fancy, handmade invitations to a slightly smaller group than the year before. Since we were going for more controlled games, we were shooting for around 20 or so. We ended up with slightly less, 14 total if you counted Moonshot and I. That left 12 people to play the games since Moonshot and I couldn’t fairly participate. At first, we were disappointed. Only 12 people we moped. However, 12 divides nicely into teams of 2,3, or 4 and everyone had a really good time. By the end of the evening, we were convinced that 12 was just about the right number for the type of game-based party we threw. We’d take more, don’t get me wrong, but as long as we broke 12 at future parties, we’d be happy. And we were very pleased with the structure vs. freedom level of the party. People roamed, people mingled, but they gathered together and competed fiercely and laughed the whole night. Plus, it was much easier to orchestrate. We had our formula.

This year found us pressed for time. With Norah demanding so much of our attention, we opted not to go as all out on the theme as the previous two parties. We went with this year’s trend and followed Moonshot’s Pirates of the Caribbean obsession to a pirate themed get-together. We sent out about 20 invites with historically researched pirate language on them, realistically expecting around 12 – 14 guests. We designed nautical themed games and purchased generous prizes in keeping with the sea-faring spirit. We juggled our responsibility as parents and did everything we could think of to make sure this year’s party was success. Well, everything that is, except follow up on the invitations. Seems a large number of them got lost in the mail. People who we considered a lock to come to the party assumed we weren’t having one because of our 3-month-old daughter and made other plans. In the waning days of last week, we watched our guest list crumble. Everyone sounded truly sad to miss out and I couldn’t fault anyone for the decisions they made, but when 7:30 Saturday rolled around…we had one guest, Jet, in attendance. We spent a half hour in sullen depression. We stared with slack faces at the impressive collection of fake gold and gems piled around the house. We stared at the poster explaining the point values for the various games. We stared at each other in our full pirate regalia and I’ll be honest…we fought back tears. MoMa, having driven up just to care for Norah through the party, tried to say encouraging things, but there really wasn’t much to say. So we sat there, weighing our desire to even try again next year.

It was 8 before another guest showed up, but luckily it was a carpool of the full O’Fallon Crew: Duke, Pinky, Duran, Dolly, Rack, and Blondie. It made a total of only seven guests, still a depressing total that hardly seemed to justify the effort Moonshot and I had put in, but as good hosts the Grens sucked it up and started the party.



By midnight, the games were done, the prizes had been awarded, and everyone was stuffed on snack food and candy. We all lounged around the living room laughing at inappropriate conversation and I have to admit that we all had a good time. Moonshot and I had to get creative and find ways for us to play our own games to make even teams…but even that was kind of nice for a change.

There will be a Halloween party at the Gren homestead next year. We’ll probably send out save the date cards and give follow-up phone calls starting in late August out of paranoia. We’ll definitely shoot for a large crowd next year. However, even if we only get seven people again next year, I think it will be worth all the effort. Because, it’s a nice moment in an odd way, to be on the verge of despair and to be suddenly pulled into revelry by a small group of friends. You can’t help but sit there afterwards, basking in the friendship and crude jokes, and be thankful for each and every one of them.

So, thank you to those of you who came to the party, I hope you had as good a time as Moonshot and I did. And to those of you who were unable to make it, just know that there will almost certainly be a party here next year…go ahead and mark your calendars.