Halloween

Halloween in out little community is HUGE. How big is huge you wonder. Well this year I liken the crowds of people to be something like Mardi Gras on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. I've never seen crowds like this- ever! It was a seriously insane amount of people coming through this little neighborhood- much more than live in the local area that's for sure!

I had an 18 gallon Rubbermaid tote over flowing with candy and withing 1½ hours it was GONE! All handed out to children of all sizes who came knocking at our door. The next morning you could see how every-one's lawns were trampled by the stampeding crowds of people that were here. It was obvious just from the look for the neighborhood that there were tons more people here this year than last year!

Granted, I never had any unruly people knock on my door. When I ran out of candy they all understood and were polite (I even posted a sign on my front door stating that I was sorry but I had run out of candy). But I had heard from some friends that they had some rather uneasy and even tense moments with some groups of people when they had run out of treats to hand out. Halloween is supposed to be a fun time for children, lets have it be for the children and in the spirit that it was intended. No one needs to be rude, obnoxious or threatening.

I want to end this post on a high note. For being in a country that does not "do" Halloween, the British families really get into making costumes. It was great to see parents and grand parents dressed up in costumes going out with their children. Heck sometimes the family dog was wearing a costume. The most fun I had was when folks wanted to have their picture taken in front of our house or better yet, standing next to our automated gargoyle. It was cracking me up! We had carved pumpkins in the windows, the smoke machine was in full force, strobe light and more!