Preparations for Samhain / Halloween

I love this time of year with Halloween approaching (ok so I could do without the dark nights and cold weather but I like the feeling). This year we are going to our lovely friends (and Clara's Oddparents) Jane and Mike for Halloween as they are doing a small party and fireworks so it should be ace. Jane has also, uncharacteristically, lifted her party control (I am just as bad hence allowed to tease!) so I am making livid green marshmallow (if I can figure out how too I may put some raspberry sauce or similar inside them), pumpkin shaped biscuits and a pumpkin pinata. At least it will keep me busy and out of trouble next week and the girls busy during half term. I have to think about costumes for them too, now I could attempt Asda or similar for ready mades but, well, I think we all know that isn't going to happen now is it. So now I have to decide what the two small ones will go as. I am quite liking the idea of Clara as a spider but then I think she is clumsy in general anyway so add in an extra 4 arms and she could reach new heights of destruction. I wonder if I could make a Ninja costume for her as Mike calls her a Stealth Ninja as she seems to get precisely what she wants but no one is ever sure of how she has done it! Phoebe should have a say now really but she is refusing to decide, I quite fancied making her a Bat but bats are too scary apparently [long suffering look]. We will have to see what we can manage next week. The temptation to smear her legs with yellow mustard, pour cottage cheese over her shoulder, shove one of her dollies in a sling another in the pushchair and send her as a Mummy is almost too much though!

Of course Halloween isn't just about scaring children and playing silly games to us. It is a Pagan Sabbat, we call Samhain (Soween). It is the pagan new year and festival of the dead. At home we lay an extra place setting at dinner so we can share our meal with our beloved departed. When the girls are older I am going to make a photo album of all the loved ones who have passed on so we can sit and look through it and make time to remember them. My personal take on it will be that we remember them all year round but the veil between them and us is thinner on Samhain and they enjoy our remembrances and games. We consider it new year as it is when Nature starts again. The crops have been harvested and the earth rests (at least this is my take on it). For me the over riding theme is that the end of something is the beginning of something else. I hope this year it works for me too, traditionally for me November is a 'king awful month and in my current state I am not sure if I am going to cope too well with any more major set backs / bad luck. Still I am feeling more positive every day and the Diazepem (short term only) is helping with the panic and anxiety (mind you I think Paul is using it's affects to his advantage, was it intentional to take me tv shopping just after my taking one? Who knows but we now have a lovely wall mounted LCD TV lol) and hopefully the citalopram will kick in soon too and things will continue looking up for a while.