Yippee yippee yippe Halloween!

Oh . . . grow up . . .























(I hate Hallowe'en . . . because i have to wait until the little beggars go home to dive into the left over candy.)

Ooh I have!

Thread about sozlet-the-zombie here:

http://able2know.org/topic/136313-1

I saw a crow wreath at Smith and Hawken that I kind of covet -- one of those things that I saw in the store, liked, decided not to get, and then keep thinking about it. Pottery Barn has some little crows for only $3 each so I may get a bunch of those and do something with them. (We have a big, very realistic crow and a medium crow from PB already.)

Our giant (~4 foot diameter) spider will probably go on our tree as usual (with fake cobwebs).

That's as far as I've gotten so far. Still have impatiens in the yard, frost warning tonight so they're about to bite the dust, will swap 'em out for mums soon. Then pumpkins etc too a bit after that. (I try to get 'em late so they're not all rotty for Halloween, though that has its own appeal I guess.)

I love Halloween!

Halloween's big, here, too. We went with store-bought fairy costumes this year.

The trick or treaters shun their own neighborhood and visit the big expensive houses across the way, around here. We had our last "treater" about three to four years ago.

I don't know how I missed a zombie thread! So cool. Love that shirt.

I made some fairy costumes once for a photo shoot. It took forever. I would go with storebought too. Mo never wants to be anything popular enough to but something at the store.

This is the third time he's wanted to be a Ghostbuster and I've learned a lot from making cool, but cumbersome costumes. He came home from school today and found me working on it and he's totally psyched. I found pants and a shirt at Goodwill the other day that will transform easily into Ghostbuster garb. He puts it on every morning before school to make sure it still fits.

My favorite bought thing from last year is the skeleton dog:



The scariest thing was the scarecrow:



I want to "one up it" this year. I can't start dragging my Halloween stuff out until next week.

Have you folks seen this one?



That's not the original, but i couldn't find an image of that. It's very imaginative. It became so popular, that now they sell "witch crash" kits.

We were told when we looked at this house that it was on "treat street" and that you had to be prepared for what was going to happen. (Another street in town is "Christmas Street" -- you can't buy a house there unless you'll decorate (SERIOUSLY decorate) for Christmas -- I'm serious!) There are areas very close by that have much bigger houses and much richer people but they don't get near the traffic we do.

Our street is about a half mile long, perfectly flat, and has a wide median down the middle. The college is at one end and they send out Halloween Carolers who stroll the median for entertainment. At the height of the festivities there will be a couple of thousand people on the street.

They have one of those at the pumpkin patch we usually visit as a reminder not to drink and drive.

Nothing better than sharing halloween with a child! I miss having my niece local for it.

We've seen the number of tricksies taper off as the neighborhood ages.
I hope the trend reverses. I always tell the Bride to get plenty of candy just in
case. But we all know my real reason.

I too miss taking the kids around. That was a hoot. Especially when they
were little and cute as buttons.

Some houses in our neighborhood are in full dress. We've got graveyards,
dungeons and monster labs. Crazy stuff.

But it won't really be Hallowe'en till someone here uses the word "Samhain".
Oh wait. I just did.

Samhain?

Do tell!

Samhain (pronounced "sah-vihn") was an Irish post-harvest festival which lasted three days, and involved great bonfires in a knowingly futile attempt to keep the sun from "going to sleep." Ireland is far enough north that by the end of October, beginning of November, the days are getting really, really short. The Irish, most of whom throughout history would probably have loved to have seen some Catholics blow-up Parliament, nevertheless "celebrate" Guy Fawkes Day (November 5?), and one of the prominent features of their version of it is bonfires in the streets.

It is said that many of our Hallowe'en customs come from the rites of Samhain. The early Christian missionaries associated the feast with All Souls Day (October 31) to wean the "pagans" away from their practices and get them to come on board. All Souls Day is followed by All Saints Day (November 1), which, in an older form of English was All Hallows (i.e., Saints) Day, so that October 31 is All Hallows Eve--Hallowe'en (a shortening of Hallows Even[-ing]).

Man, if I were Stateside I'd do this:

WOW! That's a lotta kidz!!!

We used to get a dozen or so. Then it dropped down to 2 sets of 3 or 4 kids, then 1 small group, and now no one. The houses are too far apart, the driveways are too long, and most of the people aren't home during the designated trick-or-treat hours from 4:00 - 6:00 pm.

Robert's door story made me laugh out loud.