Tag: #halloween

Halloween Past and Present

Posted on by The Retired Alchemist

Halloween is typically a quiet holiday for us. We live in the country, so we do not get any trick-or-treaters. And now that the kids are grown, we don’t venture out in the cold and dark (and sometimes snow) to beg for candy anymore. Our celebration is several days before Halloween when we have family over for our annual soup and pumpkin carving night. It was a little quieter than normal this year since some family members were out of town and a couple others were sick and unable to attend. But our small group “carved” on with great concentration. Mr. U was highly criticized when he whipped out his power tools. He pulled the old man card… wimp.

Carving pumpkins is serious business.

My favorite part is having the grands arrive in their costumes and come to “trick-or-treat” us. We had a pink dinosaur and Frankenstein stop by. Unfortunately, the “bloody nurse” was sick and could not come. Probably caught something from one of her patients.

Our trick-or-treaters arrived.

We started the soup and pumpkin carving night tradition several years ago. I decided on soup, just to make it simpler. Besides, who doesn’t love soup in the fall? But really, let’s face it, holidays are all about the food. So, we have lots of delicious finger foods to go with it. This year, Mr. U got creative with the vegi tray. I always make my pumpkin sugar cookies. I double the batch because they make great little hostess gifts to send home with people too.

It looks to me like this skeleton has a severe case of diverticulitis.

The hit of the night is making Witch’s Brew. We got the recipe from a cookbook that a family friend gave us for our wedding. It is really just a recipe for homemade root beer, but the dry ice elevates it to Witch’s Brew and the grands love to make spells over it.

Making witch’s brew.

Halloween past

How Halloween is celebrated has changed from when I was a kid – both for better and worse. The costumes are definitely better. We used to create our own costumes from whatever we had on hand at home. That meant that I was typically a hobo. Just grab an old flannel shirt of my dad’s, roll up one pant leg, put some brown marks on my face and top if off with a well-worn hat. Boom – done! On a morning radio show the other day, they asked what people’s favorite Halloween costumes were from their childhood. Everyone from the baby boom era said they didn’t really remember having a costume. Most recalled being a hobo or a ghost (made from an old discarded white sheet with two holes cut out for the eyes). It was all about putting something together with what you already had on hand or found at a thrift store. Now there are pop up Halloween costume shops everywhere with every type of costume imaginable.

The other thing that is quite different is trick-or-treating. This is defiitely worse than when I was a kid. We used to take an old pillowcase and roam the town like feral children stocking up on candy. Back when a pack of kids could run all over town and our worst fear was that a bully would come by and steal our candy. We did not return home until our pillowcases were so heavy we could hardly carry them anymore. My favorite part was coming home and everyone throwing their loot out on the carpet to see what you got. First though, mom and dad had to check it to make sure we threw out any unwrapped candy or fruit (thanks to some crazy person putting a razor blade in an apple and ruining it for everyone.) I would separate my candy by type, and then… let the trading begin. I will trade my large Tootsie Roll for your Snickers bar and back and forth until you had an almost perfect selection of candy. Ahhh, life was good back then. Now the kids go to Halloween parties, trick-or-treat at the mall or only their neighbors.

Halloween present

Halloween night Mr. U and I will stay home, dim the lights, put a fire in the fireplace and pull out the candy we always buy for the many, many trick-or-treaters…. that we know we will never get. 😊😊😊

Have a fun, safe Halloween.

Happy Halloween!

Posted on by The Retired Alchemist

Happy Halloween to each of you! Last week we had our annual soup & pumpkin carving party. It is a byop (bring your own pumpkin) gathering. We have two or three different soups and people bring side dishes to share. I make my traditional hot cider, which fills the house with the aroma of cinnamon and apples when people arrive. It tasted especially good this year since the temperatures dropped quickly and we got our first snow of the season that day. Fair warning… it is another picture overload post. I may just give this type of post the acronym “POP.”

We enjoy a casual meal together and then bring out the stencils, knives, candles and pumpkins to create a little Halloween magic. It is fun to see what different designs everyone comes up with. The great thing is that the young, old and in between can participate. My 96-year-old dad even got in on the action. Since he wasn’t up for carving, he decided to draw a smiling face on his pumpkin. (I remember that my mom always wanted him to carve happy pumpkins instead of scary ones.)

What holiday isn’t more fun with kids?

This is where grandkids, or any other children you can find, come in very handy. You get to experience their excitement and imagination, ramp them up on candy and then send them home with their parents. Life is good being a grandparent. We live out in the country, so we don’t get any trick-or-treaters unless they are Harry Potter and a Zombie Cheerleader.

We were greeted at the door by these two trick-or-treaters.

Aside from our darling new granddaughter, we have another new addition to our family. Son #4 got a new puppy, and he is adorable. I love dogs, but we just don’t feel like we want the responsibility for one at this point in our retirement since we still want to do some traveling. So, it works perfectly that our kids have pets; we get our dog fix and then send them home. Kinda like being a grandparent… all of the fun without all of the work and responsibility.

Cuteness overload!

The hit of the evening is when Mr. U, aka “Bops” to the grandkids, pulls out the black cauldron and adds ants’ blood (root beer extract) to stir up a batch of witch’s brew. It is another recipe from our old tried and true recipe book we received when we got married. We used to make it for the boys’ birthday parties when they were little and then when we had grandkids, it evolved into a Halloween tradition. The magic ingredient is the dry ice. Pour the “witch’s brew” over a couple scoops of vanilla ice cream to make root beer floats for dessert afterwards.

The kids love making “witch’s brew”

This year I found a couple of cute plastic recycle bins at the Dollar Tree. Which, I might add, is a lie because it is now $1.25 for everything. I guess inflation has even hit the dollar store. I had some left-over orange almond bark, so I decided to make a small batch of ghost garbage to fill them and give to the grandkids. The recipe is from a colleague of mine years ago. One Christmas she filled clear bags with it and added a colorful ribbon and tag that said reindeer fodder and gave them out as office gifts.

It is all about the treats, right?

The actual night of Halloween is pretty uneventful around here, particularly compared to the soup & pumpkin carving party. As I mentioned, we don’t get any trick-or-treaters. However, Mr. U always has to buy a little candy “just in case.” So, on Halloween we usually pop up some popcorn, pull out the trick or treat candy that we did not give out and settle in for a movie. Life is good.

Some of the carvers holding their creations.