'Tis the Season!

As strange as it might sound for someone as completely cowardly as myself to say, Halloween is one of my absolute favorite times of year. I mean, when else is it deemed perfectly acceptable for supposed grown-ups to play dress-up with fun and fanciful costumes, play around with sculpting a hollowed-out pumpkin, and hand out candy to their neighbours? There is really a lot of space for letting your undernourished creativity run wild! This year we managed to score a whole bunch of discounted decorations the weekend after, meaning that we'll have a lot more toys to play with in setting up our doorstep for the tiny ghost and goblins (more like Ironmen and Batmen). This year, though, Collie did some amazing improvised decorations with a few bits we happened to have laying around the house. They were EXCELLENT! I really loved her little bin bag ghosties. So cute!

I enjoy pumpkin carving to a ridiculous degree. I can't claim to be great, but I can reproduce a simple template. Printing one out from the Internet is really simple. With hundreds of possible designs you'll never have to be stuck doing the same square-toothed grin year in and year out. This year, Halloween happened to fall in the midst of some scholarly chaos. I hadn't slept the night before (as I was busy working on an assignment for an English course), but I wasn't about to let that stop me from my pumpkin fun! I started these two as soon as I got home, and was still putting the finishing touches on the last one as we were handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters. It all worked out in the end, though. The light inside of them is from small, battery-operated LED lights. I find candles a bit worrisome. The top of my pumpkin lid always ends up charred black by the end of the night, no matter how many precautions I take. I also can't help imagining some little Dracula's cape catching fire as he whirls around in search of his next candy connection. The two pumpkins shown at the bottom of this paragraph (in silhouette) are my efforts from last year. They are also lit with LEDs.

While we don't celebrate with the fireworks and bonfires I encountered in a Dublin Halloween (I thought I was in a war zone!), we had a lovely quiet night. They candy tray depicted is the one we assembled last year. This year we went with the classy and understated 'emptied fun-size bar box into bucket'. A few days after the big night, I found a website advertising special effect contacts for Halloween! While they are rather expensive, it is hard not to imagine all the amazing costume possibilities while perusing their collection. I guess I'd better plan ahead next year...

The weather here is starting to get cold. We are making sure we leave the house with a thin pair of stretchy gloves and a tuque. Col just assembled our newly purchased snow blower today in an anticipatory strike against the impending white stuff. While the snow we have had thus far has had the decency to melt upon hitting pavement, it is only a matter of time before it settles in for a more serious spell. This is a picture I took from our bedroom window last year. My sister is eargerly awaiting the arrival of the snow as it heralds the beginning of her much-loved snowboarding season. As for me, I haven't been on skiis for a couple of years. Perhaps this will be the season to correct that oversight... I might even find Col taking a lesson or two. When it comes to snow, the best thing you can try to do is enjoy it.