Double, Double Toil and Trouble

Happy Halloween!

Can you guess that I love Halloween?  Every year it comes around and I swear it is my favorite holiday.  Then Christmas rolls around and I swear that is my favorite holiday.  So I figure we'll call it a draw between Halloween and Christmas.  I have loved Halloween since I was a child.  What is better than dressing up, going out and and getting free candy?  And it is a plus if you get the pants scared off you at least once.  Those houses where you had to go through some kind of Trick-Or-Treating maze or haunted house to get to the candy and then the skeleton next to the candy comes alive and scares you half to death... yeah those were the BEST houses!  Someday, I'll be that house and kids will come from far and wide to Trick-Or-Treat at my house.  Someday.

That being said, I haven't had much luck with Trick-Or-Treaters in the past.  The house we grew up in was not in a suburb and hard for the little kiddies walking around in their masks to get to.  So we only had maybe one or two Trick-Or-Treaters, not that I was there because I was out getting my own candy.  Then went to college and got some at the house in Boulder but not many.  There weren't many kids in the neighborhood.  Then we got more in the house out on Powers.  None in Manitou last year because again it was hard to get to.  So we'll see about this year in my brother's house.  I haven't been able to decorate much so who knows if the kids will come.  It is my fondest dream to have lots of Trick-Or-Treaters.  The jury is out on my new house.  I'm not sure if it is in prime Trick-Or-Treating territory and I won't be able to tell you until next year.

Yeah, this year's Halloween has been kind of a dud.  It saddens me.  I've just been so busy with other things and I'm REALLY not settled so ghoulish celebrations have been put off.  I didn't even have a costume this year which is unheard of.  I have been depressed about that so I've been planning for next year.  No idea on a costume but my house is going to freaking rule, thanks to Pinterest.

Here are some decoration ideas I'll be putting into play next year:

See my Halloween board on Pinterest!

I'll probably start making decorations in July.  Ooo it is going to be so spooky.  And I will have equal fun decorating inside but then I do have the dogs and cat to think about so I can't go completely insane as I can outside.  I'll start buying supplies tomorrow when things are on sale.  You have to think about these things.

And next year's costume will be legendary.  I am very proud of my last two costumes.  Last year we had a Zombie vs Survivor party so I was a survivor.  Specifically I was Zoey from Left 4 Dead.  (You rock if you know the game.) 

 The year before that I was a zombie.  Which I was also very proud of.  Let me note that I did the make up all by myself.

See how much fun Halloween can be?  And what did I do this year?  I carved a pumpkin because it would be horrible not to carve a pumpkin.  Keep in mind that I am not especially skilled in the medium of pumpkin carving so mine came out a bit like a drunk child.  But he'll be out there on the stoop!

Fun fact:  We owe the witches' brew (the one that starts with "Double double toil and trouble) to good old William Shakespeare.  Bet you guys didn't know that.  One reason to like McBeth!  See the witches' brew at the end.

So Happy Halloween everyone!  Get spooky!

from Macbeth

A dark Cave. In the middle, a Caldron boiling. Thunder.

                Enter the three Witches.

       1 WITCH.  Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.
       2 WITCH.  Thrice and once, the hedge-pig whin'd.
       3 WITCH.  Harpier cries:—'tis time! 'tis time!
       1 WITCH.  Round about the caldron go;
    In the poison'd entrails throw.—
    Toad, that under cold stone,
    Days and nights has thirty-one;
    Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
    Boil thou first i' the charmed pot!
       ALL.  Double, double toil and trouble;
    Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
       2 WITCH.  Fillet of a fenny snake,
    In the caldron boil and bake;
    Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
    Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
    Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
    Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,—
    For a charm of powerful trouble,
    Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
       ALL.  Double, double toil and trouble;
    Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
       3 WITCH.  Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf;
    Witches' mummy; maw and gulf
    Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark;
    Root of hemlock digg'd i the dark;
    Liver of blaspheming Jew;
    Gall of goat, and slips of yew
    Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse;
    Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips;
    Finger of birth-strangled babe
    Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,—
    Make the gruel thick and slab:
    Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
    For the ingrediants of our caldron.
       ALL.  Double, double toil and trouble;
    Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
       2 WITCH.  Cool it with a baboon's blood,
    Then the charm is firm and good.