Hallowe'en Poetry

To begin our Hallowe'en recap, I give you a haiku I composed when reflecting on the pumpkin carving experience.  I just can't keep talent like this to myself.

See the young ones scoop

Pumpkins full of stringy mess

Don’t barf! I’ll do it

Moving on.

On the Eve of Hallowe'en

Cleaning out pumpkins is apparently quite nauseating...and scary

The night before Hallowe'en we carved our pumpkins.  I always intend to do them a few days before,  but honestly - it always seems to be a last minute rush.  Josh starts preparing the kids for an inevitable let down:  maybe this year it will just be too busy to get them done. I usually agree with him - it always seems like it's going to be a insurmountable task to carve seven orange gourds into enchanting luminaries.  And yet, somehow we manage to get them hacked into something worth lighting and setting on the steps - enchanting...perhaps not, but at least it's done!

We could probably do better, but as long as we set the bar low enough, our kids will not know the difference, right?

The kids' pumpkins: as unique as the kids who think up their designs!

My pumpkin and Josh's - bonus marks if you have any idea what they represent. There's some serious artistic licence being taken there.











Hallowe'en
The kids got all costumed up - I planned for weeks days hours to get their costumes just right.

Thanks are in order:

First of all, thank-you London Drugs for being the first store in the area to have their costumes at 75% off on Hallowe'en Day.

"Capt'n, I need more Pow'rrrr"

Live long and prosper my sons, may the fortunes of pre-Hallowe'en sales always find you when your mother fails to plan good costumes in advance.

Sugar-rush anyone?

Secondly, thank you Sher for being a cheerleader in highschool and saving your uniform.  Even if I had been cool enough to be a cheerleader, I'm sure I would have gotten rid of it by now!

And thank you Keaton, for being perfectly happy to be a puppy, the same as every three year old brother before you was.

The Warming Station
Then we got ready for what is easily my favourite part of October 31st:  Our "Warming Station".

There was a moment while we were madly setting up, hoping to have everything ready before anyone started the neighborhood rounds, and Josh was running back into town to pick up styrofoam cups, because I have to - HAVE TO forget something important before each and every event I host, that I thought - this is a bad idea. We won't pull it off, I should blow out the lights, close the garage and just forget it.

But as always, I was wrong.

It was fantastic.  Even better than last year.

It was great to see many familiar faces come by with their kids to say hello and grab a hot chocolate or cider to keep them from freezing on their walk about.  Even better were the number of people who said they had been hoping we would do this again.  It hadn't occurred to me that we weren't the only ones who had enjoyed the warming station last year! Silly me.

I had printed off simple postcards inviting people to join a neighbourhood facebook page.  The response was really positive, and a few have already joined. Who knows what could happen here between this year and next?

When I wrote about our simple warming station idea for Family Matters last month, I was pleasantly surprised to hear how many readers were inspired to do, or were already doing something similar.  If you did take it up a notch connecting with your neighbours this Hallowe'en - leave a comment and let me know what you did! I'd love to hear about it!

And because I love to share my poetic genius with you.  I leave you with this:

Getting to know your neighbours is dandy

Especially on nights when they’re out getting candy

Give hot choc-lit to go

And you’ll soon get to know

All their names, which will come in quite handy!

Amen.