By Kevin Aldridge
The Cincinnati Enquirer

WESTWOOD - Karen Strasser, wearing a pointy black hat and black cape, cracks a sinister smile as she stirs up a cauldron full of bubbling potion with the end of a broomstick on her porch.

Karen Strasser of West Wood stirs her caldron with her broomstick, dressed as a witch. (Tony Jones photo) | ZOOM |

"Would you like some of my witch's brew?" she cackled to a group of unsuspecting trick-or-treaters Friday night.

"No!" said a young boy, shaking his head as he retreated from the porch.

"Don't you think it's rude to turn someone down when they offer you something?" she said. "Don't you trust me?"

The kids shook their heads. One brave young boy dressed as Count Dracula took the witch up on the offer to sample her potion, which was nothing more than dry ice and water.

"Come back later," Karen Strasser told the boy as she continued to stir the pot. "It's not quite ready yet."

Halloween is one of Jim and Karen Strasser's favorite holidays. The couple is one of the few on Hildreth Avenue who went all out this year by decorating their home with ghosts, scarecrows, dismembered bodies, cobwebs and tombstones.

The couple even purchased a sound-effects machine that produces eight Halloween sounds, from howling wolves to moaning ghouls.

"My wife likes to get dressed up but it's not my gig to walk out with a bloody hatchet sticking out of my head," said Jim Strasser. "If you've got a scary-looking yard, I think that's good enough. You don't want to scare the kids too bad."

Karen Strasser, a full-time mom, said she had trouble finding a costume to fit her this year. The 42-year-old is pregnant and expecting in about a week.

She has been preparing for Halloween night since Oct. 1. She said her enthusiasm was probably surpassed only by her 6-year-old son, Will.

"I was talking to a friend of mine earlier today and she was telling me how she was going to cook her family a good meal tonight," Karen Strasser said. "I said to myself, this is Halloween. We're not going to eat real dinner. We're just going to eat cookies and candy and junk."

The couple said on average they see about 100 kids pass by their porch.

"We're equipped for 120, then we have to start passing out pennies," Karen Strasser joked while giving out a handful of Lifesavers to neighborhood trick-or-treaters.

Will summed up best what the family enjoys most about Halloween.

"It scares the living daylights out of you," he said.

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E-mail kaldridge@enquirer.com