Trick or Treat!

It's THE day! One of the biggest holidays of the year here at our house. The party last week was great fun, but we have as much (if not more) fun tonight when the hordes of trick-or-treaters descend.

Our house is in a great family neighborhood in a suburb just north of Dallas. Plus we have several apartment complexes just a couple of blocks away. So, we will have literally hundreds of kids come by tonight with their treat bags ready and open.

And we're ready for them. The front yard is full of pumpkins, ghosts, and skeletons. We even have a graveyard with a real wooden coffin that we bought at a garage sale. We'll turn on the spooky lights, the fog machine and the scary sounds CD. I'll put on a costume of some sort--but can't be too scary for the little kids. Then I'll just sit in a chair on the front porch...won't have time to get up and down from the couch as the doorbell rings.

And the kids love it. They tell us how cool it is and wander around the yard looking at everything. Many oft hem are repeat customers from last year and years before. A couple of years ago, a mother complained that she had to drive in from fifty miles away since her kids had seen the show a couple nights before Halloween. They insisted that they come back to trick or treat. That was fun. (My next-door neighbor kidded me this afternoon that we should help pay for HIS candy, since our block becomes a magnet for all the kids in the area.)

Now, I know some people who actually AVOID being a part of tonight's activities. They go out...or hide in some part of their house with all their outdoor lights off. That's no fun. So, do your part. Give a little fun and get a lot back in return. You don't have to go all out, but make sure you have plenty of candy and maybe a decoration or two to make things more spooky. Put on a costume if you can. The kids appreciate the effort. And you'll get to be a kid yourself again.