Every year, Ted goes all out in decorating our house for Halloween. He's spent the last 10 years collecting some of the most ghoulish decorations you've ever seen. There's the rat eating the packaged brains. And there's the life-size skeleton which hangs out of the window on the third floor of our house - swaying in the fall breeze. Yup, we're the scary house on our block.
We've become kind of famous on our block. Every year after our decorations go up, I can look out my front window to see a mommy out there with her little preschooler in a super hero costume inspecting all the scary decorations in broad daylight. I guess mommy figures that if she can show her kid that it's all make believe, then he'll have the courage to come trick or treating at our house when it's dark. It's actually pretty cute.
I have to admit, that in the light of day, the decorations aren't all that scary. In fact, to me they look a little, shall we say, plastic. But add a little dusk, and the house does look spooky, especially with that damn skeleton swaying back and forth. It's all about the ambiance.
Kate hates Ted's Halloween decorations. She thinks they're embarrassing. "Honestly, dad. It's not like we have little kids living here..." Maybe not, but Ted is is not one to let a little detail like that slow him down.
I love Halloween, but for a completely different reasons. I love Halloween because of the candy. I still remember the excitement of getting that haul of candy, and the thrill of finding a full size candy bar in my plastic jack-o-lantern. It was the highlight of every Halloween. I always said that when I grew up, I was going to be that house that gave out the big candy bars. No fun size for me. It's for this reason that we give out full size candy bars every year. I wanted to pay it forward.
So, while we may be known in the neighborhood for having the scary house, I'm happy to be known for something else too. I'm happy to be the house that, years from now, kids remember because we gave out the full size candy bars.
Have a ghoulish Halloween.
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