Halloween 2013

This year we wanted to celebrate Halloween a little different than previous years. We had the idea to invite a lot of people to have a look at our creations and to enjoy my homemade pumpkin soup. One day Petra, photographer at a local news site called MooiMaasdriel.nl, came by because she was interested to take a look at our preparations. She made some photo’s and wanted to give some attention to our Halloween plans on their website. In the article we invited people to come over for Halloween. The article is only in Dutch, but you can have a look at her photo’s here. You can find our blog about the preparations here.

On Halloween we were ready to greet people a little later than planned.

Outside the pumpkin soup was already simmering and I’m glad to say everyone enjoyed it. Out of the 18 liters I made, 10 liters were eaten. 

The pumpkins of which I used the scooped out flesh to make the soup could be admired outside. As an extra treat we had hot wine, which people also really enjoyed. :-)

On Halloween people in the so called white quarter in Hedel organise a trick-or-treat evening for children every year and we told the organisation that people could visit our place after the trick-or-treating if they wanted. If you’re interested in seeing more about this trick-or-treat evening, click here. The article is only in Dutch, but you can have a look at the photo’s. Because of the trick-or-treat invitation we had candy for the children. Except for dressed up children, a couple of ghost horses visited us also:

Not only the children dressed up, other visitors also came in style. We loved it!

Petra of MooiMaasdriel.nl visited us again on this evening and they also gave attention to this evening on their website. The article is in Dutch again, but you can find more photo's here. 

It was kind of an explosive evening: a lot of people showed up at once so the garden was full of people and the house was packed, so unfortunately we didn’t have a chance to talk to everyone. Luckily my mother-in-law was there to help us with handing out pumpkin soup and candy. We meant to do that ourselves, but we were very busy so we couldn’t find the time. Despite the fact that the evening didn’t go as planned, it was a really fun evening. The weather was nice too. It was cold, but not as cold as could be expected for this time of year and more important: it didn’t rain at all!

On behalf of vampires and victim: a big thank you to everyone who was there!

Halloween: the pre-fun.

As most of you must know, 31 October 2013 it was that time of year again: Halloween. Although it's not formally celebrated here in the Netherlands, we'd like to dress up the house and the garden. Albert's parents lived in America for a few years, his mother fell in love with Halloween en thus she brought it here. :-) For us it's THE moment of the year to horrify the garden and house. Because it involves quite some work, we start getting our stuff out of the attic at the beginning of October. The pumpkin in front of our window tells the neighbourhood it's spooky time again. :-D

Previous years we've been using our uncovered garden and drive for our Halloween decorations. Last year we used a white party tent to put our horror scene in, but we decided it should it different this year. Because a white party tent on your drive doesn't exactly set the right mood, we decided to use our garden house. That would be a lot more fitting for this year's theme: Dracula. You be the judge: is a party tent the right place for a vampire cave? :-) Well, we didn't think so. Besides, everything is better protected from the weather (which was really needed with all the wind and rain we had) and it's easy to lock up. Slowly but surely the garden house became a vampire cave.

With a cosy vampire lodging as a result: 

Until the day of Halloween itself details are adjusted. The thing we wait a little longer with is the carving of the pumpkins. They go bad so quickly after carving. Unfortunately we haven't found a way to preserve the carved pumpkins, so if you have any ideas, let us know. Albert always carves the pumpkins: 

this year assisted by our friend Femke, who you can see below with her first carved pumpkin ever: 

They have the patience that Marga lacks. But everyone has their talents and Marga's talent is making pumpkin soup: 

For this soup, the flesh that is scooped out of the pumpkins is used. It's a waste to throw it away. Last year was the first year we handed out pumpkin soup to the interested people who came to see our creations on Halloween. That went really well because the soup was all done quickly, so for this year we made 18 liters just in case. :-D  

Of course the house was Halloweened too:

That thing that will stay a while longer is Spooky Town because we also use that as our Christmas village. We can enjoy it for 3 months. :-)

Our next blog will be about Halloween itself.