W-O-W! My generous gifter showered me with more Halloween treats than I've received in nearly thirty years' worth of holidays!

As I explained to my match, Halloween has never been a big holiday for my family. In fact, my mom despises it so much that most of my October 31sts were spent sitting in a darkened home with blankets over the windows and the doors, pretending not to be at home at all. Pretty dismal, right? As a result, I never fostered much affection for the holidays, a problem which has persisted well into adulthood.

Well, I've been aiming to change that this year, and my gifter's package has gone a long way towards getting me into the spirit of the evening. I couldn't believe it when I opened this thing. It was massive! In addition to absolutely outrageous amounts of candy (some of which, admittedly, was already gone by the time the picture was taken), my match threw in some extra-special treats to really get me in the spirit:

a Wet 'n' Wild stencil and makeup kit to easily create my own costume

light-up candlesticks and a skull with a moving jaw to give my place a touch of spooky

a pumpkin carving kit, and instructions on how to make absolutely delicious-sounding roasted pumpkin seeds

Trick 'r Treat, the film by Michael Dougherty

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty -- a really fascinating sounding memoir of a young mortician

And while you probably can't tell by the picture, I accidentally stabbed a hole into the letter my gifter included when I was opening the package with a knife. Totally adds to the spooky feeling, am I right?

Thank you so much for this awesome package.