rdansky @ 2013-11-01T02:06:00

So every year we do up the house for Halloween, and every year we try to do a little more than the last. At first it was just a few lights, then an inflatable skull globe (courtesy of Marla Dansky and family) and spiderwebs and hanging skeletons and colored lights and a flying ghost and motion triggered beasties and, well, you get the idea.
The short version is that we are now "that house". You know, the one that's full of lights. The one that little kids yell "I wanna go to THAT house!" about. The one that gives frights and candy in equal measure. It's a pleasure to do it every year, especially since Melinda Thielbar and I get to share the holiday and the fun with Merrie Burnett and Steve Burnett and Luna Black and more, but, as the preparations got more intricate (and the Halloween stuff took up more and more of the shed), we wondered, just a little bit, if maybe we were overdoing it.
After tonight, we have our answer. Folks thanked us, again and again, for putting in the time and effort. For making something that the kids were excited to see. For doing something cool - especially with Steve in his Urban Yeti getup roaming the lawn. For being, for lack of a better word, That House.
One of the things I love about Halloween, and about trick-or-treating in particular, is that it's an excuse to actually meet your neighbors. To exchange five minutes of chit-chat while the kids (borrowed, in my case) run up to the doors and demand tribute of Skittles and Snickers, or to say hello and thanks to the folks kind enough to be handing out candy. And to talk with neighbors, and to hear them say they got a kick out of what we do, well, that meant a lot.
We've already taken most of the house down. The lights are packed, the blinking eyeballs rolled up and put away, the Halloween Tree dismantled and put back into the shed. Just a few fake spiderwebs remain. It's done, and it was glorious.
And if I said I wasn't already thinking about next year, I'd be lying.