Giant Inflatable Santas Already?

Well, we're in November now. Halloween is officially behind us. I can safely say this because as I blog, my neighbours down the street are attempting to blow up an rather enormous inflatable Santa Claus.

This is not new. I just looked back on last year's blogs and saw that the same neighbour had been almost as early last year with his Decking of the Halls. This year, he's two days earlier. I should be getting used to it by now. I suppose they're trying to be the first to inspire the neighbourhood to get into the holiday spirit. I live in that type of neighbourhood. I've noticed as I walk the pups that where there's one house that's decorated for Halloween, you'll find the neighbours on either side, for several houses down, also bedecked for the holiday. Then there will be a gap where there will be undecorated houses. Then there'll be another pocket of houses, all festooned with decorations.

Christmas is the same way. If one house has lights and inflatables, the houses around him will also have holiday decor. It may not be inflatable but it's giving it a pretty good challenge for glitz and sparkle.

Still, right now, Mr. Giant Inflatable Santa Claus is alone in his attempts to decorate for Christmas. I can't help but think that might last for at least another couple of weeks until people physically start craving Thanksgiving turkey and, as a penance for the calories they WILL consume, they put all their energy into decorating early. Right before Thanksgiving, it's forgiveable. I mean, what's a few more days before the start of the Offical Deck The Halls Holiday Season?

Nevertheless, as much as I adore Chrismas and the holiday season, I haven't forgotten that it was just Halloween yesterday. At times, I was besieged by trick or treaters and yet, at the end of the two hour candy-giving-out period, I still managed to have some candy left over. Granted, I had deliberately picked out every single blue raspberry flavoured Tootsie Roll pop from the Costco sized bulk package I'd bought but even without my small little crime, I still had plenty of sugary treats left.

I'm quite glad about that. If I'd have run out this year, I think I might have had to hide next year. I don't think there were quite as many kids coming through. I was slightly disappointed in the lack of costume-efforts in some of the cases. I don't mind high schoolers trick or treating, even though some people think they're a little old. However, if they can't be bothered to even attempt to dress up and come around with their plastic grocery bag and ask for candy, they're not going to get much from me. To me, Halloween is about creativity and having fun with the spirit of the holiday. If you're just in it for the free sugar, then I'm not going to reward you the way I do the other kids who do make an effort.

I did have some cute kids come through. There were a lot of parents trick or treating for their young 'uns this year. They'd wheel the tiny kids up my driveway in their strollers. The little kids were adorable but clearly not used to people just handing them candy for the sake of it. I tried to make sure I gave the really little kids soft treats like Gummi Life Savers or, at worst, Twizzlers. Jolly Ranchers were reserved for the lazy high schoolers who were really just out begging. I gave the cute toddlers Skittles and a Tootsie pop. I let the elementary kids/middle schoolers choose from my bowl if they were dressed appropriately. I think my favourite costume went to the four-year-old Frankenstein who was green from head to toe and complete with bolts and square head. He was also smiling like a fiend. Any kid that can go that far to dress up and still be enjoying himself earns himself four pieces of my sugar-filled snacks.

What I also enjoyed was the fact that since I live down the street from the police station, the patrol cars were not only out, checking on the unchaperoned kids and keeping an eye on their safety but they were also giving out their own Halloween candy. It's nice to see them being so responsible yet also getting into the spirit.

What I didn't enjoy was seeing this rather creepy person riding around on his bicycle with a Michael Meyers hockey mask and stopping in the middle of the street to just stare at the kids. As an adult, I thought this was a little creepy. I don't mean in the horror-film-I'm-going-to-axe-you-sort-of-creepy, I mean in the "I'm a creepy neighbourhood weirdo and I might just "Lovely Bones" you in my basement sort of creepy. I thought, initially, it was one of those high school boys I see from time to time in the neighbourhood who are the stereotypical geeks. They slink around with a few other high schoolers, clearly too cool to do much but not cool enough to do anything.

Well, I was wrong there. Mr. Michael Meyers Hockey Mask Face turned out to be, you guessed it, Larry the Potential Serial Killer.

Yes. Instead of giving out candy to kids like a normal nice neighbour, Larry the Potential Serial Killer was riding around on a borrowed bicycle, trying to scare the crap out of kids.

I know that the bicycle was borrowed because he came up my driveway to my front door in an attempt to scare me. Since I'm not a complete moron, I had figured out who it was ahead of time. Larry proceeded to tell me all about his adventures as the Weirdo in the Mask on the Bicycle. It turns out that someone had seen him riding around on his borrowed bike and called the police. Larry, in turn, had defended himself to the police who, apparently, know him and are his 'buddies.' He had told them that yes, he could understand people being scared of him but it was 'the nature of the costume,' that people were scared.

Me, personally...well, I wasn't scared by the Michael Meyers mask as much as I was alarmed that a forty-something-year-old man felt like that was the best thing to do on Halloween night in a neighbourhood full of little children. What's wrong with a fog machine and a scary Halloween CD playing?

After Larry had told me his sad tale of being 'warned by the police to stop his creepy behaviour' (my paraphrasing), he tried to get me to invite him in. In turn, I thrust my candy bowl at him and said, "Have a lollipop." He didn't want one. It didn't stop me from saying, "Oh, hey, look, more kids!" and ignoring him in favour of the cute moppets who were marching up my driveway for their Skittles.

This was my Halloween night. The candy held up. The puppies had a bit of a yip but actually were pretty good considering the strangeness of the evening to them. I'm sure being gated in the kitchen while fairies, Yodas, Spidermen and monsters rang the doorbell for their candy was a strange occurance in the life of the pup.

Of course, they haven't seen the giant Santa Claus in the neighbours yard yet. They haven't even begun to see strange. I'm personally a little worried about the Christmas tree and their love of biting pretty, shiny, swinging things.

Still, though my neighbours with the giant inflatable Santa might disagree, that's a few weeks off yet.

Happy Tuesday!

Almost Halloween

I can't believe it's almost Halloween. I mean, I know I've been waxing poetical about Autumn for some time now but it still seems that it's not time for Halloween yet. After that, it means Thanksgiving is just a few weeks away and then...Christmas.

I love Christmas. I'm just not ready for it yet. I know the stores would like it if I was because they're already trying to entice me to look at the white, red, green and gold aisles of decorations and trimmings. I know Christmas seems to arrive in stores earlier each year but I don't really recall Halloween being bumped for Christmas decorations. And yet if you go into any shop that has season decor and items, it seems like the Halloween aisles have shrunk dramatically and Christmas has crept into the empty space.

I think it would be nice to have Halloween first. If they must, stores could put out the Christmas stuff afterwards. I mean, sure there are a few Thanksgiving decorations but after you get past turkeys, pilgrims and pumpkin-y stuff, there's not much to it.

Ah well. I refuse to surrender to the commercial call of Christmas until after Halloween. I'm a big fan of Halloween anyway. I love the dark allure of the holiday. I like carving my jack-o-lanterns. I like that the weather gets crisp and when it's windy, you can almost picture the creatures that Halloween surrenders creeping about in the shadows.

This year, Halloween is on a Sunday. I was sort of hoping my neighbourhood would have its trick or treating hours on Saturday instead as some other neighbourhoods are doing. As mean as it sounds, that means I wouldn't be home since I've been invited to a "reduce, reuse, recycle" Halloween party. I plan on reusing/recycling all of my old Halloween costumes so I will be a renaissance maid with dark angel wings, a pirate hat and '80's accessories. As far as the 'reduce' part of the party, given my love of food and eating, I think my clothes will be reduced in size when I put them on.

Still, I don't mind giving out candy to trick or treaters. It's just that last year, I spent $11 and ran out of candy in an hour. This year, I spent $22 and hope it lasts two hours. I'm not a chocolate-giver-outer. Bags of chocolate not only melt and get yucky but you also get a loss less pieces in one of those. I got one of those all-purpose Wonka candy bags- 6 lbs- with over 150 pieces. I also got a box of 100 Tootsie Roll pops but I'm giving those out gingerly because I'd rather like some of those left over. I've become a fan- particularly the blue raspberry ones. I'm actually a bit cross that if you want just the blue raspberry ones, you have to mail order them on line and it's super expensive. Why don't they sell bags of individual flavours? Does anyone really like grape?

I'm also a bit worried about the puppies on Halloween. Sookie has a yippy tendency to bark at strangers. I'm going to gate her and Rory off so they can't yip too closely at the trick or treaters but I have a feeling that they're not going to be happy. Also, I made the rather silly mistake of having fun with them and the doorbell one day. I was outside and I rang the doorbell and hid and then knocked on the window. The pups got excited. Now everytime they hear a doorbell ring- particularly on TV- they get rather excited and sit up, waiting for someone to knock on the window. Silly Captain Monkeypants!

Nevertheless, giving out candy is quite fun. I'm hoping that at least some of the kids have good costumes. Last year, there were lots of masks but no real costumes. I like a good effort. I think I'll reward the good efforts with two pieces of candy.

Unless, of course, I run out. Again.

Here's hoping 250 pieces does it!

Happy Wednesday.

Halloween Nights...

I'm not quite sure where the weekend yet but it seems to be Monday already. It's been a bit strange today. I woke up in my normal Monday morning stupor, wondering how it managed to be 6 a.m. already when it was just 11 p.m. and I was going just going to bed. A couple of bashes of the snooze button later and I did finally manage to crawl out of bed. As I was getting ready, I went to start the kettle boiling for my morning cup of tea and I noticed something strange: It was daylight outside.

For a moment, I was thrown. I wondered if it was possible that I'd overslept by a lot, given that it's always dark when I leave in the morning. Only after a minute of undue panic did my brain catch up: Daylight Savings Time had ended.

The ironic thing was that I had already changed all my clocks and adjusted mentally to having that blissful extra hour of sleep. It wasn't like I didn't know about the time change. I think it was more that it was a Monday morning and on Monday mornings, thinking is not my strong suit.

I managed to wake up enough to drive to work after listening to the weather. (Vague report for the day: we might have renegade rain on Wednesday. Renegade rain apparently is the same of 'impulses of rain' or the simpler version: It might, or it might not). When it's actually daylight outside, you tend to notice things that you normally ignore. For example, there is an entire row of trees that looks like they're holding their hands to the sky in exclamation with the entire middle section cut out because of power lines. Also, mangled roadkill looks far worse in the light of day, particularly when it's fresh. Also, college students still cannot cross the street without texting, in daylight or in darkness.

So, I did make it to the office. Everyone's talking about Halloween. My Halloween was pretty nice. As I said in my earlier blogs, I've never really had the option to pass out trick or treat candy before so I was prepared. I had literally over four lbs of candy. My massive bowl was overflowing. I had my awful '80's costume on, ready to go out to a party as soon as the trick or treating was done. Trick or treating was supposed to begin at 6 p.m. At 5:50 p.m., my doorbell rang. There, on my doorstep, were three little girls dressed as fairies and princesses and escorted by their parents. They were adorable, even if they were early. One of them told me how pretty I looked- considering I was wearing legwarmers, jelly bracelets, a hideous neon jacket and my hair was hairsprayed up in true '80's "Mall Hair" fashion, I fear for her sense of fashion. I was a little worried for her, actually. She was shaking a lot as she spoke, quivering, even. She actually reminded me of my parent's pet chihuahua which quivers when it gets excited. I asked if she was cold, a little concerned about her shivering. Her dad sounded a little affronted, saying, "No, she always does that when she gets excited." So, she was a lot more like the chihuahua than I originally thought. Of course, I hadn't intended to be offensive with my question: I mean the normal response to a child who is dressed in a little thin white princess dress on a chilly night who is shaking like a leaf is that she was cold.

The rest of my evening consisted of long stretches of waiting for kids to show up and, when they did, they came in droves. I confess, I was a wee bit disappointed with the costumes. Some of them had gone to some trouble but there were an awful lot that had just put on a mask. The ones I liked were the ones whose parents were waiting and who reminded their kids to say "thank you." I'm a sucker for good manners.

I was gung-ho about my candy bowl at first until I realized it was only 6:45 and it was emptying fast. I tried to hold back on giving handfuls of candy to the kids but some of them grabbed it before I could stop them. I even had one little girl who didn't even have a bag but held her hand out expectantly. I almost offered her a grocery sack but she didn't seem interested, just took her candy and scurried away.

Then, the worst happened at 7:15 p.m. I ran out of candy. All I had were starlight mints which I'd realized were not the best thing to be giving out to little kids because they're a choking hazard. I felt horrible but I had to do the unthinkable: Turn out my porch light and close my door.

Strangely, this did not discourage the next batch of kids who rang the doorbell anyway. I offered them mints and they took them. As soon as they left, I did a very bad thing: I turned off all the lights inside my house except the ones not visible from the street and pretended I wasn't home.

My lesson from this evening is that I need more than four pounds of candy. Also, kids don't like lollipops as much as chocolate. Also, kids who are unescorted by polite parents will compare what they get before they even leave your doorstep so if you give one Twizzlers and one Oreo cookies, they WILL call you on it. Personally, since I tend to think of Trick or Treating as authorized begging disguised by a costume, I think kids should be a little more grateful for whatever they get. At least I didn't give 'em the dreaded Tootsie Rolls. My coworker was telling me about a mother who actually knocked on her door last Halloween because she'd given out peanut M &M's and her child was allergic to nuts. To that I say, "SHUT UP!" If you're going to take your kid out begging for candy, even if it is in tribute to a pagan holiday of sorts, you CANNOT tell people off for giving out candy. If your kid is allergic to nuts and it's a problem if he even looks at the candy then DON'T LET HIM GO OUT ASKING FOR IT!

Anyway, after I'd hidden in my house from the packs of dressed-up kids, I headed out to a Halloween party hosted by my coworker. That was fun. She's big on the holiday so her house was decorated tastefully and cleverly. It was an '80's party. I'd gone to some trouble to procure an authentic '80's outfit with the right accessories but as soon as I got there, people said, "Who are you supposed to be?" I didn't realize I was supposed to BE someone. I said, "I'm wearing '80's stuff," I said. They looked puzzled. I finally said, "I'm a Valley Girl," to which they were like, "OH! Neat." Then they gushed over my other coworker's costume which she'd pretty much bought off the rack at a Halloween store. She was an '80's rocker. I was...an '80's person. I tried to blend in with Richard Simmons, Cyndi Lauper, Stevie Nicks (?) and Ally Sheedy as well as the Ghostbuster and Pac Man but I stood out because no one seemed to know who I was. See, my misunderstanding was that an '80's party meant dressing in '80's fashion. Alas, it was secretly a "dress as your favourite '80's person party."

I never have been good at parties. I tried to mingle but it was very couple-y. Note to the world: Couples don't like to be separated by strangers attempting to be friendly. In the end, I had a nice time but it wasn't the most social of events I've ever been to, even though I attempted to be friendly.

All in all, it was a good Halloween if not the best ever. When I got home from the party, I was relieved that my pumpkins were still glowing; I'd been afraid that my lack of candy would lead to tricks- usually they involve smashing pumpkins and such. Fortunately, the kids in the neighbourhood were nice and I appreciated that.

Now it's time to take down the Halloween decor and think about the next season that lies ahead. To me, it's Thanksgiving...to retailers, it appears to be Christmas since they've had the merchandise on display for at least 3 weeks already. I'm not ready for that yet but now that there's frost on the leftover pumpkins and turkeys in the store, Halloween is officially over. The candy is 50% off even though it's no different from the other candy that stores sell at full price. It's too bad it's a year away, maybe if I start now, I will have enough for next year. Ah well, you live, you learn, right?

Happy Monday...

Carving Pumpkins...

So, I carved my annual pumpkin last night. It's a Halloween tradition for me. Growing up in the UK, Halloween wasn't much of a holiday. In fact, aside from making paper witches out of construction paper, lolly sticks and glue, we really didn't do very much. Trick or treating wasn't allowed and so, at most, there would be halloween parties in which games like bobbing for apples was the main focus. I know, in recent years, the UK has become very influenced by the U.S. in regards to Halloween and nowadays, the traditions are similar between both the U.S. and the U.K. But, back when I was a young 'un (not too many years ago), we used to emphasis the spooky rather than the sweet taste of a bucketful of candy.

I think the reason we never cared is that on November 5th, we'd have Guy Fawkes night, a deliciously pagan holiday that I'll blog about on November 5th.

But I do remember when I was really young that I believed in Halloween. I truly believed there were witches and wizards flying around at night, that the dark, chilly night was full of ghosts and demons, all celebrating the fact that this was their night, a night in which they were allowed to be scary and crawl out of the shadows. I had an overactive imagination which, naturally, led to a lot of nightmares and having my parents leave the light on while I slept. Yet it seemed right, for Halloween. It made sense. As I got older, I stopped being quite so literal but I still let myself imagine those covens of witches, celebrating their night, Macbeth style.

So, when my siblings and I moved to the U.S., our first Halloween was a bit of an awakening. It was freezing, for a start, and so even though the kids had dressed up, they had to wear big coats over their costumes which took away from the effect, somewhat. Then they'd go beg for candy. No one ever really thought about the trick part or trick or treat. I always thought that was a shame. It was such an accepted thing that people would willingly give out candy that there was no opportunity to concentrate on the darker side of the trick or treat ritual. Ok, so there were a few kids who would toilet paper (t.p. for short) people's houses but since they did that year round, it didn't mean much. I think I saw eggs on someone's car once or twice but, again, there were quite a few mean kids in the town where I grew up and so that wasn't limited to Halloween either.

Not that I'm endorsing property damage. I don't. For the record. It's just one of those things...trick OR treat. I did trick or treat exactly once in my life and had enough of those revolting peanut butter kisses and Tootsie Rolls (which, in my opinion are nothing but Imposter Chocolate and will never, ever be real chocolate and thus they are worthless) to last me a lifetime. Everyone gave out treats, there was no need to trick. It seemed odd. It still does, a little.

So, I started my own traditions now that I'm older. I never get trick or treaters because I live in flat that has a locked entrance door. So, on Halloween or a day or two prior, depending on my schedule, I carve my pumpkin.

Last night was that night. For the first time, I actually splurged and bought a carving kit. Normally it's me, some knives and spoons and my own creativity. By the time I'm normally done carving, I have a spoon that is bent at a 90 degree angle from scooping, assorted cuts where I got a bit too enthuastic in my carving that haven't quite stopped bleeding yet and a lopsided yet well-meaning pumpkin with face of some sort. This year, armed with my kit, I was ready to go.

Before I could begin, there were other things I had to do. I always make a baked sweet potato for dinner with sausages and a vegetable on carving night. Last night, it was baked asparagus with garlic and parmesan (I'm trying to be better about cooking). After I'm done eating, I pop in "Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone" and begin carving.

I had lit my pumpkin spice candle. I drink pumpkin ale. Yes, I'm a bit into this pumpkin thing. Ironically enough, I don't like pumpkin pie. I do, however, like the flavour of pumpkin pie stuff. I still have yet to get my hands on the Dreyer's Pumpkin Pie ice-cream but the Baskin Robbins stuff is fantastic. Pumpkin ale is awesome.

And I carved. I used a pattern this year. I've never really done that before. I'm not sure I'd do it again. The kit supposedly had an ingenious little tool you'd roll on top of the pattern to transfer it to the pumpkin. The tool is, literally, miniscule. It's made for really, really little people, maybe the size of a smurf. My hand cramped up. I was going to carve some howling wolves but the pattern transfer thingy didn't work and I knew it'd never turn outs. I know my limits of carving skill. So I went for this weird owl-ghoul-thingy. It came out ok. It looked like the pattern. It just...lacks personality.

I should probably tell you that normally, my pumpkins represent what I'm into at the time. For three years running, I carved pumpkins that looked like Frank the Bunny from the movie Donnie Darko. Another year, it was a pumpkin that blazed the Harry Potter logo on one side, Green Day on the other. Another year, i did an evil pirate. Another year a skull and crossbones. All done, relatively, free-hand. They might have been a bit lopsided but they meant well.

This year, my pumpkin is...boring. It was almost too easy. And when it turned out, instead of what I thought was an owl, it was some weird monster with folded arms. It looked like an owl until I put the candle in the pumpkin. I'd paste a picture but due to the fact my camera has no batteries and that my cell phone camera takes pictures the size of a postage stamp, you'll have to take my word for it.

On the plus side, I did roast the seeds. I like to catch some of the flesh between the seeds, salt that and roast it. Delicious. Along with the beer and the softly scented candle, it was still a lovely, tranquil evening.

I just wish my pumpkin was less...generic. I'm debating doing another one. After all, it's Halloween tomorrow and there's still some time.

But this time, I'm not using a pattern. There's a lot to be said for the enthuiasm of creativity, even if it doesn't turn out perfectly. Using a pattern is simple but it's much for fun to go outside the lines and start carving away. Maybe I'll stick to using the tools that came with the kit though. There's a lot less blood that way.