Holidays are coming!

So it's getting close to that time of year and everyone has their own festive triggers.  For some it's shopping followed by hot chocolate and mallows, for others it's trimming up and advent, and for a few it's not until the eve of the day, for me it's none of these.  It's not a particular time of the approaching weeks, it's not trimming up (although I love doing this), it's certainly not the shopping in fact it's absolutely nothing I can control, I just have to wait patiently until it happens.
It has happened this year already!  This weekend totally unexpected as I was watching some mind numbing garbage on the TV the commercial break came on and there it was! That warm fuzzy christmassy feeling flooded over me as the sound of jingling bells was followed by the chanting "holidays are coming, holidays are coming..." Yes! it is the Coca Cola Christmas ad, for years it has been played out and to me it is my festive trigger; once it is being aired I feel it is time to get excited, time to send 'im indoors up to the attic to get the baubles, bells and broken fairy lights down, and definitely time to start getting gifts sorted out and panicking about how much I've left to get with little money (only one more payday between now and the day! eeek!).  So now I'm feeling the atmosphere of Christmas, bring on the carols, nativities, panto's and time to write my letter to Santa for all the Twilight stuff I've got my eye on, because no matter how much Twi-memorabilia I already have, it's never enough, I don't have a replica of Bella's ring, nor do I have the turquiose stone bracelet, I don't have a signed script, Eclipse bedding, Edward fleece blanket, all four books on audio, Robert Pattinson gift wrapped in nothing but a shiny bow *thud*..... see the list is endless, at least I give people plenty of choice!

So embrace the festivities and get excited because Holidays are coming!

 Leave a comment and tell me what your personal Christmas festive triggers are!

Click here to view the Coca-Cola Xmas ad 

The Scarefest Success

The Zombie & The Tormented Bride (that'd be me and 'im indoors then!)

Well after spending a day and a half creating "the dungeon" - formerly known as "down the side where we keep the bins" at approx. 2pm Halloween afternoon the heavens opened...yup...in great british tradition it pee'd it down!  We had "shower proofed" said dungeon but there was no way it could completely withstand that torrential downpour it received, so it all got wet.  The rain continued to fall, twilight came and went and darkness was upon us and no trick or treaters in sight; so there we were, all dressed up and ready to strike terror upon the neighbourhood kids and it seemed that the whole thing was going to be a washout.  To top it off, my kids were now hysterical because they had been patiently waiting to go out trick or treating since around 5.30am, (how do you re-programme kids when the clocks go back to stop them trying to get you up at ridiculous'o'clock?), and were now faced with the prospect of not being able to go at all.

I tried praying, ritualistic chanting, spell casting and then good old fashioned effin and jeffin up at the sky, anyhow one of them must have worked because it stopped raining and the hordes arrived.  As it happened it would seem the new dampness within the dungeon made it all the creepier so the smoke machine was cranked up and the other half and my dad (aka The Zombie and The Vampire Lord) were put on duty to "appear" to unsuspecting trick or treaters as they braved the dungeon on their quest to reach my back door for the grand prize of a mini bag of Haribo or a swizzel stick.  Mind you, you'd think since we've been doing this for a few years now, they should expect The Zombie that appears from behind the strategically hung black curtain, but it would seem not; The Vampire Lord was a new twist this year, to up the excitement.  So with the men occupied and half the village descending on my house off I went with the my little werewolf (who looked likeTeenwolf) and Count Dracula (not quite Jacob and Edward - but the nearest I could get away with!) The Wicked Witch of the West (mother) and the dog, good old fashioned trick or treating. After terrorising the neighbourhood and tiring out my little ones we returned with buckets full of goodies to be greeted by the continuing stream of visitors to our dungeon; by now the groups of teenage girls had arrived or "the screamers"  - my personal favourite.  We were then forced to wait patiently to gain access to my own home yet be entertained by all our victims!  It turned out that whilst I had been out collecting our own swag, back home we actually ran out of treats within 20 minutes of the first visitors, a sign had been put up to say we were out of treats but that people were still welcome to come and look; the lack of treats in no way stemmed the flow of ghosts, witches, vampires, werewolves and teenagers in short skirts teamed with a pair of devil horns, and long after my kids were tucked up in bed (afterall it was a school night) we continued to try and scare the crap out of the big kids that remained.  Shortly after 8.30pm the dungeon was finally closed, the pumpkins extinguished and the last few people turned away, and so the end of another successful Halloween....until next year Mwahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Sweet Dreams!