Happy Halloween

Halloween is definitely one of my more favorite holidays. I wish I had a house that I could decorate and dress up and hand out candy at. When I was a kid, a little kid, my dad (who was basically a kid himself) made a haunted house in our garage. There are pictures of a two-year-old me wearing scary masks hanging out next to the fake dead body. Last year, Mr. H. and I decorated the door of our apartment. But we knew our neighbors then and thought they'd get a treat out of it. This year we're on the top floor and we don't know any of our neighbors. We didn't even bother to carve pumpkins or get any of the Halloween decorations out of the basement.

Speaking of the basement, the family that lives in the garden apartment have decorated as much as the little steps and landing area leading to their apartment (and the laundry room) will allow. There's cobwebs, dead bodies, talking skeletons and other creepy stuff that is just one more reason to not do one's laundry. There are kids that live in the apartment, but I'm sure that was just the excuse the adults needed to decorate.

Halloween is a weird holiday. It's strange to dress your kids up and then let them go out begging for candy from strangers. We were the kids that usually had homemade costumes. We ran the gamut from hobos to mummies. And we never missed a Halloween. One year it as raining so much, our mom took us door to door in the car. It seems silly now, but back then, it was essential. Now I'm too old to go trick-or-treating unless I'm with a little kid. Good thing I have two nephews and a niece.

If you've got access to little ones, grab 'em and enjoy the candy. If not, at least put on a spooky mask and scare your neighbors.