Wednesday already? Jeesh this week is just flying by!
So if you are following me on Twitter I am sure you have seen countless tweets about the upcoming Beltane Brouhaha. Some of us have decided to have a tweetup and chose the Brouhaha as our destination spot. This is an event open to anyone who wants to attend! So I am very happy to announce that I got the email that the registration is now open…..yay!
The event is fairly affordable. $12 early registration fee ($15 at gate), $5 for kids 5-12 yo, $40 for a cabin holding 2-4 persons, $15 for a single dorm space, and $12 for meal tickets. For me and the girls to go it came out to $98. Not really bad for a weekend event. I have attended some other functions that were much more than that for just one person! Now last year was the first time I ever went so I am not really a big expert but I will pass on a few things I learned.
I personally recommend you get the dorm space or cabin. Dorm space is basically they will shack you up in one of the larger cabins with people that you may or may not know. Basically you pay for a bed. The cabin is good for families or if you know some people and want to share a cabin with. I already know a couple people from twitter are going to share a cabin. The best thing about cabins are they are right there in the middle of everything. There is tent camping space available if you are looking for something more affordable. The people with Church of Wicca can direct you to who you need to talk to at the park for tent camping info. Now the downside to tent camping is that you will have to leave the cabin area by dusk when they close the gate, that is if you plan on driving into the site area. Now if you don’t mind walking in the dark to your tent then you don’t have to worry about when the gate closes. I just hope that you can find your way back to the tent site lol.
Food. I do recommend you bring some snacks and maybe a cooler to keep at your cabin. Bear in mind there are animals in the woods. Last year we had a mouse that literally opened our screen door and came right in and found my stash of pretzels. Lesson learned! Open flame is not permitted on campground except at one designated spot just outside the messhall. So if you want to cook at your cabin, bring your campstove. As for meals I recommend that you do purchase the meal tickets. You are not going to get anything glamorous to eat but it’s not horrible either. Last year we had hot dogs, hamburgers, spaghetti, and my all time favorite….pudding from a huge ass can. You know, one of those ones you find at Sam’s or Costco. They do sell snacks and drinks throughout the day at the messhall.
So what to expect? Vendor row is one. Last year I think they had about 10 businesses with tents set up selling their wares. If you have a business you will want to get in on this event. It’s a great way to meet your clientele! And if you love to shop witchy stuff you will find plenty of stuff to ooh and ahh over. In addition to shopping there are classes for kids which tend to be craft oriented. My daughter had a blast last year making a wand and coloring her own divination cards. There are classes for the adults pertaining to various things. Some were Wicca 101, others were more deeper into theology and then others were craft oriented. Last year I took a class to sew my own ritual robe. I was the first person who had ever failed her class. I think I felt worse about that for her than about me failing it lol. Also there will be plenty of ritual. Last year we had a ritual the first night, an initiation ritual the next night (I didn’t attend that), and then a maypole dance just before leaving on the final day. In the evening people gathered into a drum circle around the fire pit and just hung out and had a good time. That was the best part, we just had so much fun socializing! I know for alot of solitaries in places that they don’t know alot of other pagans, events like this can be a huge blessing.
So that is my awesome wisdom to share. If you have question, feel free to ask in comments or email me. If you are attending, let me know here in the comments! If you want to find someone to share a cabin space with, leave it in the comments and maybe someone else will see it and respond.
Here it is, the first one my kids ever made! I hope that we get snow more often in the future. They enjoy it so much. I just hope if we get it, we get it without the power outages. There are still over 30,000 people without power here in WNC. My heart goes out to all the people without the power and the workcrews busting their butt to get the power back up and running.
We are supposed to get more on Thursday. We are supposed to leave Wednesday. We are faced with a new problem because of our dog. See normally when we go out of town we arrange to have someone come by in the morning to let her out and feed her, then someone comes by in the evening to bring her in and refill her water. We leave out an exceptionally large bowl for water so that she is well hydrated. But now with another snowstorm coming (and coming from the Gulf which usually does us in) I am worried that people won’t be able to get over here. She can’t handle being out all night and if someone can’t get to her she won’t be fed and watered well. My neighbors are all going out of town so I am worried. We are trying to find someone who can take her to their house. Otherwise I may have to stay home so that we can be sure she is taken care of. NOT something I am happy about. I checked boarders and most are full and the ones that aren’t are demanding more money than I can handle. Hell by them time we paid a boarder we wouldn’t have anything left to drive down! So yea, it’s not looking real holiday like for us. Well for me anyway. Hopefully we find out today what is going on with that and maybe have the issue resolved.
Also today we have a birthday party to go to. The kids will love that, it’s at CHuck E Cheese….the place I won’t have a birthday party at. Don’t get me wrong, Chuck E Cheese is a great place. It’s just ours is super tiny and has got nothing on Fun Depot. Fun Depot is similar but about 10 times bigger and offers laser tag, an indoor go kart track, outdoor go kart track, indoor putt putt, bumper cars, AND a batting cage. Yea, lots more going on at the Fun Depot! But anyway, we are going to Chuck E Cheese and they are excited.
Today I also finish my father in law’s scarf. Doesn’t matter if I use up the second skein or not, I am done. Been working on this thing for 2 weeks and I am seriously tired of looking at it. Been using the hubs as the model and I am sure that despite the fact it doesn’t reach the tops of his pants yet, it’s ok. Why? Cause hubs is much bigger around then his father. So yea, it’s gonna be done today. YAY!
Oh and last night’s Winter Solstice ritual was cancelled I was so looking forward to it but I don’t blame them. So Molly and I will probably do something small here at the house tonight. She will love that since I usually work alone lol.
Oh and check out this cool timelapse video of the snowstorm!
1.) Have you started your christmas shopping? Yep, I shop all year. Now I am just picking up or making extended family items and stocking stuffers.
2.) Tell me one of your special traditions. The cookie baking is one. Because of some of my family history, I am looking to make new traditions that extend our celebrations the entire month instead of focusing on one day. Last year we incorporated stringing cranberries and popcorn. This year we are adding handmaking pretzel wreaths (blog post about that coming soon!) to hang on the tree that we can eat Christmas Day or on Winter Solstice. Not sure when we will yet lol.
3.) Are you a “Black Friday” shopper? absolutely not! I don’t know why people think pushing and shoving over items is part of Christmas/Yule cheer.
4.) When do you put up your tree? We get our tree on Dec 6th, my oldest’s birthday. Since she has a Dec bday we try to celebrate her first and then set out as a family to go pick one out. Depending on what day her birthday falls on and how late it is will depend on if we decorate that night.
5.) Do you travel for Christmas or just stay home? We usually stay home but this year we are traveling 15 hrs to Homestead Florida. Kinda excited about it but I am not happy about not having a tree. And since we won’t be here, it didn’t seem right to go out and buy one.
6.) What is your funniest Christmas memory? The year my hubs put my present in a tampon box. I seriously thought he bought and wrapped some dang tampons! If I remember correctly, it was a glass reindeer to put on our table.
7.) What is my most favorite christmas show of all time? The original Grinch. Best story EVER!
8.) Do you do your own baking? yes!
9.) Fake or real tree? Real. Grew up with fake trees and it wasn’t fun to set one up. Plus after reading up on fake trees, they cause ALOT of damage to our earth. At least real trees can be purchased with roots for planting or if you get a traditional cut one, it can be recycled into mulch and firewood.
10. What day (as a mom) does the actual panic set in to get it all done? I usually don’t panic. This year I am though because we have to have everything done before we go out of town and some changes were made to how we are exchanging gifts and we didn’t find out until recently. It will all get worked out though.
11.) Are you still wrapping presents on Christmas eve? No. Might be this year, but I am shooting to have it done before I leave.
12.) What is your favorite family fun time at Christmas? Eating. Yea, I totally look forward to chowing down on Christmas goodies, turkey (no ham for me cause it’s gross and stuff), and all the trimmings.
13.) What is my favorite christmas craft? Ya know, I don’t think I have one favorite lol. I like finding new ones each year. Mostly things like making mini christmas/yule soaps, christmas/yule candles, making snowflakes out of construction paper, and even garland from construction paper.
14.) Christmas music? Yes or No? If so, whats your favorite song? Yes. My fave is Carol of the Bells.
15.) When do you hope to finish all your christmas shopping? I should be done by the 21st. I really don’t want to have to shop as soon as I get to Homestead!
I have been a little unnerved with the upcoming holiday season. See we are not going to be home for Christmas/Yule. We are traveling 15 hellacious hours to Homestead, Florida to celebrate with Mr. P’s aunt. The clan is small but they will all be there so we really can’t bow out. And since I am a total tree snob and insist on a live tree at home, there is no point in us getting a tree. So then I wondered, should I even decorate? Yea, I can’t not decorate. So last night I started bringing up all the boxes of stuff that we have. I haven’t really organized it well so I had to bring up everything so I can go through it all and find it. I have alot of boxes. 12 to be exact. 3 belong to the kids (one each) and have their own decorations in it. Fortunatley their decorations have their names on them so being able to figure out who’s stuff is what each year during take down is easy. And the kids do have their own fake tree. I got it one year after I realized that trying to fit all my ornaments and all their ornaments on one tree was getting to be impossible. Nothing big, a white table top tree that is pre-lit. And they love having their own tree. We will be putting that one up! But anyhow, I digress. The boxes. Yea. 12 of them. The 9 that are mine weigh anywhere from 20-50 lbs each. I have ALOT. I have stuff that belonged to my Nana and is older than me. I have my stuff from when I was a kid. I have stuff that I have picked up over the years, people have bought for me, and even an item that was given as a wedding gift commemorating our wedding day. And every year when I get to box 4 I start crying about how we need to stop storing this crap wonderful stuff in the basement. Who knew I would need to be as physically fit as an Olympic Gold Medalist just to lug a few boxes around?
After getting it all upstairs last night, I was too exhausted to start decorating. That is the plan for tonight. I did dig out the christmas card stash and the advent calendars for the kids. But tonight we will begin the task of making our home festive. I am even thinking about bringing in a few items to decorate my office with. Or shall I say the girls. They love to decorate, might as well give them something to do.
Circle Sanctuary has a wonderful program going on for our Pagan troops, Operation Circle Care. This is a year round operation but I am just now hearing about it due to Yule coming up. Much like any of the the other military care packages, Circle Sanctuary is looking for items to put into care packages to send to our bretheren overseas. Things like pagan music cd’s, small altar cloths, herbs, incense, pentacles, ankhs, and so on. Circle Sanctuary is also in dire need of cash donations to help fund the shipping costs of these packages. In addition they have an amazing pagan prayer card program for our armed bretheren. These cards are free and you can obtain them for your loved ones whom are overseas. And if you do have someone overseas, you can have their name added to the list of soldiers who receive these wonderful packages!
If you can help at all, please do! This is a wonderful program. I personally can’t wait to go shopping and pick up a few items. If I can ever get around to finding a 2nd job, I will be sending them some money as well.
I don’t know if you have heard of this blog but 2 Witches Blog is pretty cool. For any newbie they have a wealth of info on witchcraft, paganism, and Wicca. For parents they have lots of info on pagan parenting. And they even include some links to activities for kids and info on raising kids withing paganism. I plan on returning often to read up on their info and get some activities for my own so they can learn more about my celebrations and why.
Also right now they are doing an awesome giveaway featuring a witches calendar for 2010. I highly recommend you head on over and check them out!
So, like many other people, I am just irritated at the overwhelming amount of Christmas stuff being shoved in my face. It actually started 3 weeks before Halloween. Not so much commercials but stuff in the stores. I would look for a Halloween section and see a 6′x6′ area for it next to two complete aisles of Christmas stuff. Since Nov 1 my tv has been threatened with it’s life.
So in my effort to enjoy an upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, I decided that I would unfollow and boycott anyone touting Christmas stuff on Twitter. Now I understand that some of them target international people as well….I just have the option of not seeing it in my stream. This has ticked off a few and that is ok. They have a right to post their ads and I have the right to get rid of it from eyesight.
So I wanted to take this a step further. I decided to boycott any products or stores touting Christmas sales. I apparently didn’t think this through. It started with Glade. Well that’s not too bad, I don’t buy their stuff anyway. But then came Target and Kohl’s. Now Walmart is on the list (oh the irony since I applied for a job there!). QVC joined today but they won’t miss me either. I am starting to see that I am going to run out of options to shop for, not that I need much anyway since I shop all year long.
It just bothers me that people get so caught up in the commercialism. It’s not like I hear anybody talking about what they are going to make for Christmas dinner or planning a caroling event in their neighborhood. It’s all about what am I going to get Junior that will make him think I love him. Christmas is so much more than just presents. Obviously if your religious it has a spiritual resonance. But for the non-religious it’s about being with family and having fun. I have always made our Yule/Christmas celebrations a month long event with crafts and good deeds. We keep presents to a minimum. I try to make memories for my kids. I grew up in a home with materialistic people. None of my memories were about being with them or getting presents…..all of my memories are about spending time with the family members who made it special. The meals and the time we spent engaging with each other (which did not include my immediate family as they are lacking in the ability to engage with each other).
I think if more people spent time planning what they were going to do to enjoy the holiday instead of what they were going to buy, I could handle all the Christmas hub bub. Until then I am going to continue whining while I plan out how to stake out the best spot at our Holiday Parade on the 21st. I need the best spot so we can see it all AND get a hold of hot cocoa quickly.
So let me first say that at last night’s Spookyblogpaloozananny I didn’t win Best New Blog. However, I did win Rising Tweeter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAYYY!!!!!!!!!! So for those of you that had voted for me, thank you thank you thank you thank you. I didn’t expect to really win anything so I was surprised.
Next I want to wish everyone a Happy Halloween and a Blessed Samhain for my peeps who celebrate it! It is a bit drizzly here. I am hoping it goes far far away by tonight. I actually have to go by the Halloween Candy we are giving out today, I know I know…..I am cutting it close. If it rains I am handing the kids umbrellas so they can still do the trick or treating. THis years public Samhain Ritual is at a park near my home so I get to walk on over this year. Hubs is a little nervous about that. We have had some people standing on street corners every day this past week with signs protesting Halloween and all of it’s “evilness”. He thinks they might show up at ritual. Well if they do people from the ACLU will be there to keep an eye on things. The coven has had so many issues in the past that they now have people at the ACLU come out and hang around so that they can witness what happens and lean on the cops. City PD isn’t very helpful when it comes to these issues. Oh hell, City PD isn’t very helpful at all with anything. Anywho, I feel like I will be fine. And I have promised to talk to him on my cell the entire time that I walk over and the entire time that I walk home. Such a nervous nanny he is. But it’s sweet so I forgive him.
This of course leads me to a Ms. Kimberly Daniels and all of her wacky extreme right wing ideas about witches, candy, and Halloween. She wrote an article that has incensed so many in the community. If you choose to read it I do encourage you to leave a comment on how you feel about it. CBN.com (Christian Broadcasting Network) did have it on their site but have since taken it down for bearing false witness. Commence applause for CBN.com! I personally did not leave her a comment. Well no I did, but I made a video response about some of the highlights of her article and left her a link. Now…..whether or not she actually sees it is one thing. But I sure did feel better! I debated on whether or not to post it here. I don’t want this post to be negative on such a happy day. Nor do I want to instill any negative feelings on this happy day. BUT. I am going to post the vid here because I felt I did it in somewhat of a humorous way. I certainly didn’t yell, cuss, or cast a spell on her in this video. I just pointed out her fallacies and pretty much made a joke of her. So if you watch it….don’t get yourself riled up. It’s not worth it today! And wait to read her article until tomorrow. Because that will piss you off and you don’t need it. K? Alrighty then….here we go!
Todays post is dedicated to the wonderful people visiting from Mrs. B’s Haunted Blog Tour.With preparations for tonights events and tomorrows events I havent been able to participate much with her 31 Days of Halloween lately. But when she asked me to fill in for someone on the Haunted Blog Tour I could not refuse! It’s both a pleasure and an honor.
I thought I would discuss Halloween memories. For many of us Halloween has had a special place in our hearts since we were children. As a child, I identified myself as an agnostic long before I knew what that meant. I was raised by an atheist father and a Baptist mother. I was free to explore religion on my own and as a child I had a beleif in the divine but didn’t know how to describe it. Halloween was always what I looked forward to the most. More than my birthday or Christmas. I always felt alive at this time of year. Many people assumed it was about the free candy but the reality is, it was so much more than that. I could feel the electricity that Autumn brought. Long before understanding the elements I can remember standing outside with my arms spread out, head held back, and just feel the cool light wind breeze right through me. I longed to stand beneath the Moon and just stare at Her beauty. Before understanding the veil thinning, I could feel energy circling around me. It was always something that brought me a sense of peace. At the same time I knew that change was coming. I was never one who got excited about New Year’s Eve on Dec 31st. I never felt that sense of change and a New Year coming on that day. It was on Halloween that I could feel it.
Of course I didn’t ignore the excitement of costumes, decorations, and trick or treating. In my neighborhood it was rare to see a house not partaking. We never decorated our home to any great extent, we had our pumpkin of course. Some houses were like ours, but they did participate in handing out candy. The idea of going to a church for a Fall Festival or to the mall to trick or treat was almost sacrilege in those days. And while I don’t really knock churches for having Fall Festivals or Trunk Or Treating…..I abhor mall trick or treating (and yes, I did once take my children to the mall because around here not alot of homes partake in the holiday). In August I would start dreaming up my costume. I don’t remember buying costumes much in those days. It was mostly buying makeup and then making something up with what we had. I remember distinctly one year wearing black, white, and red makeup and my own clothes and dubbing myself as Jeffrey Dahmer’s girlfriend. The red of course was blood dribbling down my face after a “meal”. Oh the irony of that costume, LOL! Back then I opted for scary costumes. Once in a great while I did something cutesy, but it was usually something scary. In September I would sit down and draw a crude map of our neighborhood and a nearby neighborhood. I would do this so that I could optimize the best route so I wouldn’t miss a single home but the last home I visited would be a next door neighbor. It was a very serious business! At school we had costume contests. Teachers, librarians, and principals would dress up. Not one child was ever offended. The funniest costume was when our lunch lady wore a trashbag with a lunch tray, milk carton, and sporks glued to it. Once I got home it was all about eating as quickly as possible so that we could start as early as possible. In those days you didn’t start until dusk. When I would step outside with my sister and mom, you would see hundreds of mini ghouls and goblins running from house to house. Squeals of delight and friendly hellos from the parents could be heard. It was a happy time. We would spend hours walking from house to house. Getting scared by homes set back in the woods, daring one another to go first. People rigged up their yards so things popped out at you and made you scream. People hid in bushes with fake machetes to rush out at the older children. You knew you were going to be scared and you loved every minute of it. We would ramble home around 10pm. Tired. Makeup smudged, bags full. Mom & Dad would sit and examine all the candy for safety. My dad would proclaim all Crunch bars as unsafe and eat them when he thought you weren’t looking. And if you called him on it, eat one in front of you. We would go to bed in post holiday bliss. Exhausted but smiling. Dreaming of the next year and what you would wear.
Times have changed of course. And with it I have had to make changes. I want my children to experience Halloween the way I did. We decorate our home and our yard. We plan out costumes. The kids make maps of the neighborhood. We have an annual Halloween party so they can wear their costume more than once. I try to make it a month long celebration instead of just one day. And if they so desire, they come to a Samhain ritual with me. So they can spread out their arms and feel the wind. So they can stare at the Moon and feel Her staring back. So they can feel the change that is coming.
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I figure it was about time to share my knowledge about the holiday. Actually Halloween has morphed into something that isn’t a holiday but a secular gathering for the masses.
Halloween was once known as Samhain to the Celts. It was a New Year’s celebration. The end of the harvest and the beginning of the dark months ahead….winter. It was also beleived that the deceased could come back and visit their loved ones. To appease the gods and honor the deceased, the Celts left food on their doorsteps. Once the Church gained power and worked their way through Europe they found that the Celts weren’t so easily convertable. So the Church dubbed Nov 1 All Saint’s Day. The idea was that people were still honoring the deceased but it was still “holy” in the Church’s eyes. The Celts weren’t so easily persuaded so the Church added Nov 2 as All Souls Day and “allowed” the Celts to continue leaving food on their porches for the saints and souls of passed loved ones. At some point the Church convinced people that demons and evil spirits were roaming the earth on Samhain (which by now was All Hallow’s Eve, the night before All Saint’s Day). As an effort to scare them away, people worse scary clothes in attempt to scare the demons and evil spirits away first. Now you see how costumes and trick or treating got started!
When the Irish came over to America they brought with them All Hallow’s Eve traditions. And over time it exploded into what we now know as Halloween. Samhain has not been forgotten. Many people don’t know that Samhain is still celebrated but that is ok. Many of us have “dumb suppers” or some variation. A Dumb Supper is a meal eaten in silence with an extra plate at the table for your ancestors and deceased loved ones. Because I live in a home of mixed religions we do not engage in a Dumb Supper, we just add a plate to our dinner table. I know many people who do this, especially if they have non-pagan company at home. In addition some of us gather in ritual. In my town we have a coven and a grove who hold public rituals where anyone is welcome to attend and participate. We gather, we honor the gods and our deceased, we perform various divinations and we may even do a spiral dance.
Unfortunatley there are people who have done some horrible things that have been attributed to witches, witchcraft, wiccans, pagans, and satanists. Just to clarify LaVeyan Satanists (the most common satanist, rarely do you find a theist satanist) do not worship the Christian Devil. They are more atheistic in their beleifs and they DO NOT perform blood sacrifices. For that matter neither do the rest of us. Now I will mention practitioners of Vodoo and Santeria might, I honestly am not well versed in their practices. I will say that anyone doing a blood sacrifice on Halloween night is either doing it because they want to be “badass”, are mental cases, or want to draw attention to themselves. Some will claim they are witches or wiccans or any other form of pagan. These same people are NOT a proper representation of what most of us beleive. In all honesty, it would be like me comparing all Christians to the Westboro Church or the Amazing Grace Baptist Church (extreme fundamentalists in case you don’t know).
Bottom line: Dressing up and trick or treating is not going to make anyone a pagan. Yes, it has pagan roots….but so does most every other holiday. So if your not gonna stop celebrating Christmas or Easter, there is no reason to stop celebrating Halloween.
I was so looking forward to it but I don’t blame them. So Molly and I will probably do something small here at the house tonight. She will love that since I usually work alone lol.
