Bwaaa-ha-ha-ha-Halloween!

Our first Trick or Treater is Dodger.

Once again, he dresses as a thief.

He destroys a green Skittle, a yellow one and an orange one before I stop him. Yipes, he only weighs about 9 ounces. I think he just ate 1% of his body weight in fruit flavored sugar.

The first costumed kid arrives at 6:25. It's a little later than usual and I am a little concerned that we might get stuck with 10 pounds of Starbursts, Skittles and assorted fun-sized chocolates. (I'm not kidding!)

She's wearing a homemade bee costume. The pipe cleaner wings are already bent. I adore her. She gets a Snickers.

I admit it, when I have the time--and sometimes I don't because they arrive in rushes of ten or twelve a time--I rate the costumes and give accordingly. Handmade ones get the good stuff. Skittles are mid-range and Starburst packets are the norm. Back when I bought the candy, I got nothing but chocolate. It's cheaper when I let Hydra do the shopping.

The official greeter at Chez Sundry.

There's a great little cowgirl around 7:00. With just the most wonderful smile, dark hair in pigtails descending from her hat, holster angled across her hip, real cowboy boots.

Two packs of M&Ms!

7:15 : A teeny-tiny Sleeping Beauty just barely understandably asks, "Where is your puppy?"

I have to tell her we don't have one.

"Okay!" She turns away, completely satisfied. Her mom takes the candy and thanks me, shaking her head and smiling.

7:20 : I eat a packet of Peanut M&Ms.

Hydra checks the body count. We've jumped from 13 to 52 since the last time he asked.

7:30 : Dodger's sitting calmly on his travel cage in the kitchen, saying "Helloooo--- Hellooo---" He is not sure why we are handing all our candy to these vagabonds. Just because they asked?

We get a lot of tweens and teens in our neighborhood. Maybe it's because Acton's a small town and there's not a lot to do. Most of them make an effort to dress up. No one has seemed happier than the boy in a skirt, tube top and heavy glam make-up.

7:50 : A batch of high school students shows up, not really in costume.

"What are you dressed as?" I ask with a chuckle, "Bums?" (Oh god, when did I get so old?)

"No!" says one.

"We're from the local rehab," says the another with a smirk.

"I'm a cripple," says the girl, holding up her wrist, which is in a cast.

"Very convincing," I say, handing over the Skittles.

"Ohhhh!" says Dodger in the background, "Heh-heh-heh."

8:05 : "Wow, your window is so clear!" a little lady bug says. Cute. A Twix arcs into her pillowcase.

8:57 : Time to turn out the porch light.

Total for the night: 131 critters!

The really scary thing is, I didn't open the second 4 pound bag of Skittles and Starburts, and I barely put a dent in the chocolate!

The Shape of Things to Come

Little did I know that this skeleton waiting outside Don Cuco's was a harbinger of doom.

Well, not so much doom as a sinus infection. Hence my absence from the Internet for the following week or so. Sigh.

Craaaaazy Pumpkin

A decoration that EastCoast sent us for the office.



More decor.


Who knew there were other flavors of candy corn? There are caramel and caramel apple, at least.

Body Count - Wednesday 10/31/2007

I managed to get up a few decorations in time for trick or treating... just a couple of strings of ghosts lights and this inviting fellow.

We had 110 pirates, princesses, fairies and Spidermen between 6:30 and 8:40. They were impressed that I gave them a handful of candies. We still had some left over at the end of the night.

The most puzzling costume was a stout little boy in a shirt and tie, with lots of gel in his hair and a couple of pieces of green card stock in his shirt pockets.

"What are you? An executive?"

"I'm Drew Carey."

"Oh! Good! The hair gel really makes it work."

What I don't get is the moms dressed as pirate-hos, princess-hos and...just hos.

This Is What You Get - Tuesday 10/30/2007

I asked Hydra to pick up a few hard candies the other day.

Ahem.

Being somewhat of an over-achiever, he brought home four huge bags of lollipops, mints and cinnamon drops. They won't all fit in my biggest bowl.

So tomorrow night, the kids get hard candy. Ever since we moved here and I was soooo thrilled with all the trick or treaters, we've given miniature chocolate bars. We've had as many as 154 little beggers in one year.

Maybe this--and the fact that I'm not up to putting up the usual amount of decorations--will knock back our numbers a little.

I'm usually very very thrilled about Hallowe'en now that we give away candy. This year's events have taken a bit of the edge off. But it'll be fun. I love the kids who are about 5-10 years old.

Halloween is Coming! - 9/12/2007

And Cinema Secrets is the place to be! I don't very often dress up, but I love the decorations and the artwork associated with Halloween. And maybe even more so Dia de los Muertos.

I always drop by Cinema Secrets early in the season to see all the cool costumes and make-up. Love the artwork on the windows this year!

Hallowe'en is over

Well, obviously. But it took me a while to get my decorations down.

I’m always pleased—and a little surprised—when everything fits back into the box it came in. Here it is, all ready to go back into the garage, where there was still shelf space waiting for it.

In a few weeks, D will give the house the big Christmas treatment. The little evergreen out front may just be ready for lights this year!

Okay, I'm a big goof

I love Halloween, especially since I moved to a neighborhood where kids actually Trick or Treat. For the past 5 years I’ve been thrilled to hand out chocolate and see the little kids’ costumes, and the expressions on the faces of the littlest ones in particular. Last year a kid fell face first into my living room. He looked pretty shocked, but got over it.

A couple of years ago I bought a big bag of brocolli at Costco and greeted the kids at the door with a collander full of it. I held it out and they were so shocked! My favorite was the 8-year-old who laughed with releif when I brought out the Snickers and said, “OH! That was SCARY!” It was also a lot of fun to hear the kids telling their parents what had happened when they got to the end of our sidewalk.

The sidewalk to our front door is about 40 feet long and very dark, so I hang orange lights all along the front porch and lit up ghosts at both ends. It looks great and we get more and more trick or treaters every year. Over 150 last year, if I remember correctly.

I don’t dress up, usually. I have a skulls and tombstones T-shirt though. I wear that. Well, and sometimes the fabulous witch hat comes out of the closet.

Photo is of the window right next to the front door.

See more progress on: Decorate for Halloween