Our First Halloween.

The child looked in my direction with a look of absolute dread.  He had stopped flatfooted, his eyes staring with wide eyed trepidation as to what he was about to encounter.  I smiled behind my mask.

Ever since the purchase of our new home, Halloween was a date that my wife and I knew we wanted to be a part of.  The dressing up and pretending to be things that were mystical and fantastic, beautiful and horrifying.  The days of yesteryear and the present mixing up as vampires, wizards and pirates go door to door with comic book and movie characters. 

It is also a day where friends and families increase their bond. 

I remember Halloween very fondly, where I would go door to door with my best friend Billy, and our parents would drive us from neighborhood to neighborhood so that we could get as much candy as we could.  To us, it was an adventure, to briefly pretend we were something else and to get as much sugar as possible.

Looking back now it seems like we must have gathered literally pounds of it by the time we got home. Our bags full of bite size bits like tootsie pops, gummy bears, various chocolate bars, licorice and more.  It was always exciting to see the newer candies become introduced and to enjoy the latest concoctions from Nestle, Hershey and Mars.

This is a time to create memories that seem to last a lifetime.

So needless to say, I wanted to make an impression.

As we went through the stores looking for decorations, the first thing that came to mind was a fog machine. 

To me, the holiday screams for a mist that shrouds the night further in the shadows, where tricks of the light can help create an atmosphere that's frightening despite the real knowledge that at the end of the day it's all an illusion to get some treats.  The fog machine, I felt, would help add a lot of depth to the occasion.

My first decoration, Bert, the fancy skeleton.

I settled, without much reading, on getting a smaller model I thought would do the trick, as well as a few various light up decorations for general decor.

Oh, and a semi-lame, semi-cool skeleton that shakes its cage as a motion sensor is triggered.  Very cool during the holiday, very annoying if you forget to turn it off after demonstrations to your friends or family.

Decorations in tow, my wife and I begin the set-up.  Lights and cobwebs begin to adorn our front porch, followed quickly by plastic spiders and other various creepy crawlies.  While putting some near the window sill, I notice a real, rather large brown spider run back behind the opened window shutter.  It makes me a bit nervous that I've set him up with more cobwebs to potentially drop from. 

One sheet of cobweb can go a long way.

After some yellow and black warning tape is finally applied, my wife and I are pleased with the set up and anxiously await the 31st.  The house, we believe, will be a success.  I did however fail to test the fog machine, an error I would later regret.

As the day arrives I fill with both excitement and dread alike.  Will everything go as planned?  Will it be as enjoyable as I had hoped?  Was I making too big of a deal about this?  I finally test out the fog machine and am severely underwhelmed.

The machine sputters out just a few sprays before needing to go into a cool down mode.  On top of which, the fog almost immediately dissipates in the open air.  The machine I had gotten was designed as an indoor only model, best used for one room.  A fact that was lost on me at the time of purchase.

I try to think of another way to utilize the fog machine, settling for running the machine inside to obscure the house as the kids would open the door to get the candy.  It still kind of worked, but it also resulted in fog escaping through small vents near the roof and looking like our house was actually on fire.

As a bit of good news, my wife was extremely thankful that a neighbor noticed and came by to make sure everything was OK.

The final touch is a blue tooth speaker playing a "Spooky" playlist off of Spotify.  It adds another festive touch to an already festive scene.

With the night about to begin, I decided that I would not try to scare the kids by jumping out of bushes or anything, but rather take a more subtle approach my just putting my mask on and watching the kids come by.

Patiently Waiting..

For the most part, it was an exercise in extreme patience.  The rain had begun to trickle down and certainly played a factor in how many were willing to brave the streets and for how long.  After about 40 minutes, I had still not been noticed by any trick-or-treater's. But then, finally, he saw me.

The boy looked to be maybe in the second grade, no more than 8 or 9 years old.  An age where you still believe that rabid panda in the window might not be exactly what it seems.  The glow of the soft orange lights and red mesh eyes made it difficult see, but even I could see a look of terrified apprehension. 

Then, my excitement faded, as I had gone too far, and the kid and his parents turned around.

"Allie, go tell them we're here, and to get a bag of chips; they're going away."

My wife volunteered to be the one to actually give out our treats, and with a background in child care she deftly handled the situation, giving the child an extra bag of chips for "finding the panda."

After two hours and roughly 50 guests later, the night is over.   I think about the night in its entirety and I'm pretty happy with how the day went.  I felt that we did a good job of making the night memorable, that years later, the people that visited our house will think about it as a positive experience and one that they might pass on to others.

The finished products.