The Halloween Display

Most of last week and all of the weekend, our living room, hallway, and conservatory (used as main entrance) has been decorated for Halloween (our daughters both had several parties to attend, and some of the friends of the oldest one were coming here to prepare).

When entering the conservatory, this was the sight that met the eye:

Our living room (that dark thing in the corner of the first pic is a clàrsach).

On the sideboard, I had placed a lot of my horror-related painted minis:

A lot of those headstones were painted tyhe last week, and I shall take a separate photo with those for my 'October Output Post' one of the next days.

Getting in the Right Mood...

I have been unearthing some of the Halloween decorations from the basement, and also purchased a few pieces more (notably Billy, some Ghoulish Garlands,  and Uncle William), and spent an hour or so arranging stuff in the conservatory and the living room windows.

Some pics from the entrance to the house.

The windows in the gable end facing Åparken.

And a phote better showing Billy (to the left), and Uncle William (next to the door). I got Uncle William from the FALGS in Odense Saturday afternoon before the girls went on the Harry Potter boat trip, and I carried him with me through the city (I was dressed up with in almost Victorian fashion of black suit, white/silver waistcoat and bow tie, black top hat, and knee-long black coat), and my moustache curled).

The Halloween Party

I'm down with a flu or heavy cold, so not much progress to report on the gaming front - but I can just about manage half lying down on the couch with a heavy blanket to upload these pics from the Halloween party we held for our kids and their classmates:

Argonor's Attic almost set for the party

View from the other end

Zombilea

Zombilea with friends

Vampiranna

Party on! The flash ruins the impression a bit

Limbooooo!

Vampiranna lends a helping hand

Zombilea shuffles under the broomstick

Monster-Mash!

No idea what's going on!

I like the way the flash is caught in the eyes of the little monsters!

Streamer-time!

Always room for some extra cake!

Leftovers!

Even more leftovers!

We haven't heard anything but positive feedback, but I think we'll segregate the two age-groups next time we throw a party - in my impression, the 5th graders felt a bit 'crowded' by the 2nd graders, and they would have had even more fun without them.

Even then, I think most participants had a blast!

The Girls have been Busy!

My daughters are making preparations for next friday, too:

The make-up has been tried on, too; here's Draculea:

Argonor's Attic Transformed...

...into a banquet hall for next Friday, and the Halloween Party we are throwing for out kids and their school classmates.

The stuff on the desk in the middle, and the chairs, are going to be moved downstairs to the garage, where I'll set up a couple of tables for those parents who wish to be present.

The row of tables will serve two purposes: The outer ones will be used for the Monster Buffet  (each participant has to bring a dish for the buffet), and the middle one will be set/decorated as the Count's Table with candelabra, spooky glasses, cobwebs/spiders, etc.

Of course, the whole room will be decorated with various ghoulish stuff, and I'll hang two mirror balls  from the beams, and place a music system with some coloured spots that flash to the rhytm of the music on the bar, from which the kids kan buy cheap sodas.

I'll be sporting my Dementor suit, which I tested at the Odense Harry Potter Festival a week ago.

I'll document the various stages of preparations, and of course, also the party itself!

Sugar Spider-Webs for Halloween.

Bought this little gadget some time ago, at the same time as my chocolate fountain. It's a Candy Floss maker, and all you have to do is add a teaspoonful of sugar, then watch as the strings of sugar forms, and catch them on your paper cone. If THAT doesn't become a highlight on our Halloween party, I don't know what will!

'Tis the Season to be...Scary!

Very soon we have All Hallows' Eve (in Danish: Allehelgensaften), or, as it is more universally known, Halloween. Another pagan festival turned into a christian celebration, Halloween was originally the celtic New Year, also known as Samhain, where the veil between the land of the living and the realm of the dead was lifted, and thus the malevolent spirits entering the physical world had to have the living daylights scared out of them, so they would return to whence they came, leaving us mortals alone for another year...

Scary masks, large bonfires, grinning laterns made from turnips and other vegetables, were the means to this grim end, and the traditions survived the christianization to the present day, where kids and other childish beings dress up and have parties among skulls, spiders, severed limbs, bats, and all kinds of gross decorations.

We are going to throw such a party for our kids in Argonor's Attic (what better suited location could we find?), and they can invite all the kids from their respective classes at school.

We already own quite a selection of Halloween decorations, and I've got myself a Dementor suit with rubber mask and hands, but I purchased some extra pieces at an almost local supermarket today:

A ghost and a pair of plastic skulls. They should come in handy.