Halfway to Christmas 2026: A Spooky Celebration for Two

Well, we did it! We threw a quick Halfway to Christmas celebration for two. Keyword: quick. Want to know how quick? We literally decorated one of our mini trees on the day of. Boy! It's funny what you can do when you're in a time crunch. All it took were a few ornaments, an Art the Clown mask, and some food, and we were all set.

I admit that we didn't go too crazy with the food. Most of the salty dishes were ordered and included chicken strips, plantains (almost chipped a tooth on those), and cole slaw.

The hubs also made a meat pie. It was his first. Usually, we only do sweet pies, but this one came out pretty delicious. But we're thinking we might actually just do the ground beef and shredded cheese on top without the crust next time. 

I think a couple of nacho chips would do real nice too. It might end up tasting like the nacho platter from Denny's. Man, I wish they had one of those in Argentina!

Though we originally had a bigger menu planned for dessert, we decided to save the extra energy for real Halloween and just focus on one main sweet dish. 

To that end, we made a brownie cake, which we turned into a Ouija board using Elmer's glue. Just kidding. We used an icing pen to make the yes and no on top, the goodbye at the bottom, and the letters and numbers in between.

Squeezing that bottle was a real bitch, but it was worth it.

The planchette was actually a spooky holiday ornament we bought a while back and served as a nice touch for the finishing look.

Now, why did we do a Ouija board for Halfway to Christmas? Because we turn all of our holidays, even Valentine's Day and Easter, into spooky holidays. What can I say? We're obsessed with horror.

There was just enough icing in the pen to create a melted snowman on top of a store-bought chocolate chip cake.

NO, NO, NO! Instead of HO, HO, HO!

For the movies, we only had enough energy for Violent Night and Insidious, which we watched while taking advantage of a couple of salty and sweet snacks.

These limited edition Oreo BTS cookies were the perfect shade of purple for Halfway to Christmas. They looked even better on our coffin plate. Special flavored Oreos are rare in Argentina, so I'm surprised these made it into the local markets. The package claims they taste like hotteok, a South Korean street food, but let's be honest: they taste like pancakes with maple syrup. Okay?

I'm the one wearing the green beanie hat

Suffice it to say, we pulled off Halfway to Christmas despite being emotionally drained. Now we're looking forward to October, when we'll get to celebrate the real Halloween. We're not sure exactly what we'll do, but we're going to do our best to get out of this funk we've been in so we can enjoy the spooky holiday with some more energy.

Until next time...

Halfway to Halloween, Halfway to Thanksgiving, and Fully Exhausted

For the last couple of years, the hubs and I have done our best to celebrate what we call the Halfway Holidays with a spooky theme to all of them.

In May, we celebrate Halfway to Halloween.

In June, we celebrate Halfway to Thanksgiving.

In July, we celebrate Halfway to Christmas.

At least, that's the idea.

Now, you might have noticed that I haven't really been posting much this year. What I have written has mostly been rants about our frustration with renovating one of our properties and the repercussions of the constant acts of vandalism that have delayed the project's completion. As you might imagine, we haven't exactly been in a celebratory mood.

Hell! I celebrated my 49th birthday in July, and I completely forgot to decorate. To make matters worse, it turns out a few of the people I considered close friends forgot it was my birthday too and never even took the time to wish me a happy birthday. Luckily, I did receive a handful of messages from my more thoughtful (though physically distant) circle. Those honestly made me feel a lot better. But if it hadn't been for the hubs making one of his delicious cakes, I might have forgotten that I even had a birthday.

The hubs cooked my favorite: homemade Southwestern Eggrolls

Besides the cake, he also made me my other favorite: Key Lime Pie

Despite how down we felt, we still pushed ourselves this year to celebrate Halfway to Halloween and Halfway to Thanksgiving. Why do we keep doing it even when we don't feel like it?

Well, just like the regular holidays during the "-ber" months, we've accepted that the Halfway Holidays don't always have to be Instagram-perfect. Sometimes we're excited. Other times we're so mentally and emotionally exhausted that we almost feel like skipping them altogether. But you know something? Even when they're not spectacular, we still make them count as long as we have each other.

For Halfway to Halloween, the hubs made a version of chili with rice and biscuits and it was delicious and warmed me up as the weather here is colder in May.

We also carved this handsome fellow!

We got crafty this Halfway to Halloween and used empty soda bottles and black trash bags to create a body bag for our decoration. It came out pretty cool albeit a little spooky.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal cookies anyone?

Mini-corn dogs, fries and garlic bread to snack on during our horror marathon

We thought the chili might not be enough, so we gave these McD's burgers a makeover

Here were some more snacks

Dirt Pudding with a monster eye and tentacles

Leatherface Pie

Using Mint Oreos, a decorating pen and edible eyes, we created Franken-Oreos

Bat Biscuits - We had some dough leftover

Sometimes, simply putting up a couple of decorations, baking a dessert, or ordering something instead of cooking is enough to make those days feel different from the rest, even if we're the only two expats abroad celebrating.

For Halfway to Thanksgiving, I picked up some KFC strips and then we made some side dishes to accompany the meal.

KFC chicken strips, popcorn chicken, mashed potato casserole, and stuffing with edible eyes

We also bought a shit ton of KFC sauces!

The hubs made a delicious mashed potato casserole with cheese and corn

To keep with the horror theme, the hubs made a pie with a navel in the middle

Our Halfway to Thanksgiving mini-tree

Although we didn't celebrate Christmas in July, we may still do it in August. It might not look very Christmas-y when we finally get around to it, but that's okay because not every freaking holiday, real or symbolic, has to become an epic memory.

Sometimes money will be scarce. Sometimes we'll both be tired. Sometimes the only thing we'll want to do is watch a scary movie marathon. But when we get older and look back on these great—and maybe not-so-exciting—moments, I doubt we'll remember whether the decorations were perfect or whether we cooked an elaborate meal. We'll remember who was sitting across from us or next to us, enjoying a piece of pie or watching Jeepers Creepers for the hundredth time.

That's really the most important reason we do this.