Goodbye Spooks. Beginners. Halloween was 31st of October. It is a huge holiday here in the States. It is celebrated in many other countries, and sometimes has a different name. It has become more popular through the years. Shops sell lots of Halloween costumes, candies, and decorations. Jack-o-lanterns are, of course, a main image of Halloween. A large selection of them of all shapes and sizes, made out of different materials, are available in the stores. We had real Jack-o-lanterns, plastic, and ceramic ones. My children dressed up, as most children did. My daughter was a pig, and my three sons were: Darth Vader, the Scream, and the Black Angel. They don't sound friendly like the pig, do they? It was great fun, though. We all went around the neighborhoods saying, "Trick or treat." When the children got home, they counted their candies, as if it were treasure. They, of course, had far too much. Grammar notes. All shapes and sizes can describe things or people. Lots of ..... is a more everyday use which means many. A large selection = a wide selection. Useful words: though, of course. Advanced. My husband threw our home-grown pumpkins in the dumpster yesterday. They were moldy and had collapsed. They had been our Jack-o-lanterns for a couple of weeks. I'm not sure that they had managed to 'spook' anyone. Perhaps they were thrown a courtesy double glance by an occasional passer-by. The neighbor's cat had a good sniff at one of them the other day, then walked away, uninterested. The time for Halloween and spookiness has gone. The costumes that mothers hunted for have been put away in closets, and the scary masks have been boxed up or given away. Now the calendar, shown by what is on sale in the stores, points to Thanksgiving, closely followed by Christmas. Some stores display holiday paraphinalia four months or so before the actual day. It's ridiculous, really. Of course, it is driven by materialism and commerce, but it makes me feel as though I cannot enjoy the moment; I always have to rush towards some other event instead of being content to experience normal, non-holiday days. So, here's to those spooks that decorated our house for a while. Let's hang on to their comical and odd images for a while before we rush into the next holiday. Grammar notes. Home-grown = something grown at home/ sometimes refers to a person. It's ridiculous (great, nonsense, garbage etc), really = very common. Here's to .... = let us toast, let us celebrate, let us tribute etc Useful expressions: to hang on to something; it makes me feel ...; to have a good sniff / drink/ meal/ look etc; a couple of.

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