Masquerade

Darnell and I were invited to a Maquerade Halloween Party way back in September. I was so excited and pumped up when the day actually came. I borrowed a prom dress and mask from a girl in our stake. Luckily last years prom theme was "Masquerade"-how convenient. I bought a cheap mask from the store that also had a witch nose attached for Darnell. It was cheap so I knew I would be able to easily take that part off. Darnell surprised me by coming home after work and spray painting it and decorating it with stripes. We seriously looked so good. I felt like we were going to a dance.

 Of course he HAD to pose WITH the hideous nose.

 Yah! I love us!

Let me tell you, it sure is hard to hold up a sleeveless dress

when you have nothing to flaunt. If ya know what I'm sayin'.

First off, this girl who was throwing the party has parents that own a castle. No joke, a real castle. She grew up in it. Her dad does construction and just decided to build his family a castle high up on a mountain in Bedford. Her parents let her have the party there. It felt surreal walking into it. 5 levels, 2 tall towers with stainless steel stairs, curvy insanely ornate banisters...the whole kit and kaboodle. All the lights were off except for the laterns or flashlights we were asked to bring and a few candles here and there. She let us explore the house but we weren't allowed to turn any of the lights on. I knew people from our ward were also invited, but with the darkness and the masks, it was so hard to figure out who had come. We finally figured it out.

After everyone had gotten there we were seated at a large table with our own little masquerade mask placecards. We were served a 3 course meal. Soup (Zuppa Toscana), salad, strawberry chicken, mashed potatoes, and corn. All of our plates had conversation straters under them. All Halloween related. (Who is the scariest horror movie villian? Retell an urban legend. What's the scariest thing that has ever happened to you?) Also a saying, that we were supposed to say sometime throughout the dinner conversation, without being caught. People got sick of me asking, "Hey! Is that your saying?" Mine was "The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice." I revealed this when dinner was over and told everyone that was the reason Darnell had married me ;-)
One of Heather's cute daughter's helped serve.

She did an awesome job of decorating and setting a creepy mood.

to be continued...