Celebrating Our Dead

Two wards came together on Friday, October 31, 2025, for a night filled with laughter, memories, and community spirit. The Celebrating Our Dead Halloween Dinner combined the fun of Trunk-or-Treat with meaningful Family History activities, honoring loved ones past and present.

The evening began with a delicious Chili Cookoff and Brownie Bakeoff, where guests sampled dozens of homemade dishes and voted for their favorites. Tables were beautifully decorated with flowers, pumpkins, and heirlooms, creating a warm atmosphere inspired by the joyful traditions of Día de los Muertos.

I made this placemat/activity page for our upcoming "Celebrating Our Dead" Halloween dinner. Feel free to use it.

Download it here: placemat_v2.pdf

Throughout the night, families connected through engaging FamilySearch activities. Members participated in the “Relatives Around Me” challenge, discovering how they were related to others in the room—sometimes distantly, sometimes surprisingly close! The Photo Match Game invited everyone to guess which childhood photos matched the adults they know today.

In the weeks leading up to the event, ward members also joined the Indexing Challenge, racing to see who could index the most records by Halloween. Awards were presented for top indexers, best chili and brownies, standout costumes, and even for those with the closest and farthest family connections.

The night ended with a festive Trunk-or-Treat, complete with games, candy, and creativity from every corner of the parking lot. Amid the fun, the focus remained clear—celebrating family, honoring heritage, and finding joy in connection.

Let me know if you use it and how it is received.

Halloween Movie Night

Invitation

Movie Screen

Seating

Snack Bar

Note the stack of blankets. They were sure needed!

Halloween Party Invitation

This year we are hosting a Halloween Party for my nieces and nephews. We are all getting really excited and I'm in full-on party planning mode. I'm planning on a witch theme or more specifically, witch legs. Like when Dorothy's house falls on the Wicked Witch of the East. I've got lot's of ideas to share but first, I'll start with the invitations.

My inspiration came from Pine is here.

Materials:
- 8.5" x 11" black cardstock
- 8.5" x 11" orange cardstock
- rounded corner punch
- news paper
- black or purple ink pad
- orange gel pen
- Cricut and Happy Hauntings Cricut cartridge
- Pixie Sticks
Start by cutting your black cardstock into thirds vertically. Then measure and fold each strip 4" from the top.

Print out the invitation poem on orange cardstock. I printed them business card size (2" x 3.5") and was able to get 12 on a page.
The poem goes like this:
Double, double, toil and trouble
Fires burn, and caldrons bubble.
Food and treats and witch's brew
The only thing we need is you!

Grab your broom and fly on over
Friday, the 28th day of October.
The fun begins at six at night.
Wear your costume, 'twill be a sight!
Cut them out and then cut off the corners with the corner punch. Glue to the top flap of the black card.
Cut a strip of newspaper the same width as the black card stock and about 4-5 inches tall. Glue to the bottom flap of the black card. Ink around the edges of the newspaper. My black ink pad is really old and turned purple. I actually like it better than if it were black.
Glue the top flap down on both sides.
Using your Cricut, cut out 2 witch's boots at 1 1/4 inches. Draw little buckles on each boot with gel pen. With a glue gun, glue each boot to a Pixie Stick. Insert into invitation and give to your friends.
Here it is again with purple legs.

Googly-Eye Mirror

I just made a really cute Halloween mirror. See...

I saw this picture frame and just had to make one for myself.

At Michael's I was looking at the picture frames for $1 and right next to it was this unfinished mirror. Light bulb! What if you looked into this mirror and there were a bunch of eyes staring back at you. And what if it said "Boo" instead of "Eek"? I always have to make a project my own so I paid a little extra for the mirror (I think it was $2.99) and headed to Dollar Tree for googly-eyes. I bought 3 packages but ended up using only 2.

When I got home I could hardly wait for dinner to be cleared off the table to start painting. I didn't take pictures of the process but it was pretty self-explanatory. I painted the background in dark purple acrylic and waited patiently for it to dry. It only took one coat since I was covering it with eyes. Gluing the eyes on was the time consuming part. It took me about an hour and a half of gluing little dots and placing eyes. For some reason, random patterns are hard for me! I started with the big eyes and filled in with the medium and small eyes.

Once all the eyes were glued on and mostly dry, I cut a strip of orange-on-orange polka dot ribbon and taped it to the back with masking tape. This way I can remove it or change it if I get tired of it. I cut out the word "Boo" with my Cricut on lime green card stock. I probably should have used chip board as well but I was too excited to just get it done. I glued the letters onto the ribbon only and viola! it's done. I can't believe I finished a project all in one night!

Here are some pictures of my nieces and nephew making scary faces in the mirror.