Bigger Spooks?

Is it me or is there more of an 'adult' feel about halloween this year?

Normally the shops are full of kids outfits and a the usual bits of blood and gore plastic but today I went on the last minute search for a pumpkin (as I do!) and found the place full of grown up's looking for fancy dress outfits, not to mention the dressed up shop assistants.

In Newcastle, the fancy dress shop in The Haymarket had a queue right round the corner - people waiting to get in to buy/hire Halloween things and many of the pubs had some kind of spooky event going on. Of course there were the normal hen/stag groups staggering around in fancy dress but then they always look pretty scary even without being dressed up.

I dont really 'do' fancy dress. Although I have been seen out dressed as Daisy Duck and a Bumble Bee in the past on New Years Eve in Weymouth - where anyone not in fancy dress feels under-dressed. So this year I will be opening the door in my usual evening attire surrounded by screaming ghosts, bats and spiders and hopefully a fabulously carved pumpkin.

I'm a bit of a humbug and normally refuse to hand out 'treats' until the actual night but tonight a couple of really cute little witches knocked on my door and very politely asked if I wanted a trick or a treat. Not being in the mood for tricks having traipsed around the town all afternoon I scurried off to find the bags of sweets I'd hidden from the boys.

Unfortunately halloween is on a weekend and that means a whole day of it rather than just a couple of hours in the evening so in the morning I'll be sending hubby up into the loft for the bin bag filled with the scary bits of plastic and filling up the spooky bowl with bloodshot eyes and blackcurrant beetles etc. Carving a pumpkin and trying my best not to get irritated by the constant "can I go out now" from Alexander.

Luckily our estate is one of four small estates and the kids tend to stick to their own, however the bigger kids - you know the ones who think being a spotty teenager warrants a handful of spare change and who give you 'the look' when you offer them a tiny bag of Haribo? Of course Haribo isn't legal tender at the offy is it?

Around here there is usually a two hour window when all the kids in various scary costumes run around in little gangs, sometimes accompanied by a cluster of parents, filling their bags and buckets with sweets and chocolates. I'm sure sometimes parents must take the wrong child home with them as they all look the same in their little skeleton suits and witch outfits.

Then at around 8.00 to ensure the remainder of the evening is nice and quiet, the decs are taken down and the pumpkin blown out. If anyone comes to the door after that it's tough.

Of course we then have the challenge of getting a sugar crazed child into bath and bed after a long day.

And then in this house two days later its Birthday time and the excitement starts again! Oh how I love this time of year!!!