There are dribs and drabs of this on posts over the past weekend, but here’s the summary.
First off, we had “trick or treat” at the office — you signed up, brought in some candy, a balloon and poster was put outside your door, and employees were free to have their kids come on (this was Thursday afternoon) between 2-4 p.m. to trick-or-treat. It was fun, it got rid of some of our plenitude of candy (while also leaving it sitting in a too-convenient bowl by my computer for the afternoon).
Friday rolled around, and I spent an hour-plus out front getting decorating done. We put some of our lantern hangers out along the new steps from the sidewalk, hanging our Halloween tea-lights from them. Ditto over on the end of the patio, where there are some stepping stones down to the grass.
I used some of Old Tree Trunk’s copious early leaf-droppage to fill several Pumpkin Bags with leaves, which went along the edge of the patio to discourage stepping off into the darkness. I filled up the rest of our outdoor trashcans with the remainder of the drifts of leaves (testing out my old new leaf blower in the process, to clear off stuff from the new terraces).
The weather was nearly balmy Halloween night, which was a huge contrast to the usual bitter cold and/or snow. (The weather during the week was quite warm, which took an unfortunate toll on our jack-o-lanterns, carved Wednesday.)
Margie took the first stint with Kitten, joining with some other neighbor families wandering the length of the Circle. That took maybe about 90 minutes, but Katherine was still raring to go when the got back. So I took her on Phase II, along with Kendall and Tyler, across the street to the Trophy Club, hitting up the houses on the main street through that neighborhood. Figure another hour of that.
Katherine ended up with at least two plastic pumpkins full of candy. We, alas, had at least that much left over. We had fewer kids than usual, especially older kids; I fielded maybe 15-18, tops, while I was at home. I was expecting it being on a Friday would mean folks out later, but evidently it meant more Halloween parties.
So now we have candy in the house. Oops.
On the bright side, we had several neighborhood families complement us on the new front yard. Which was unexpected, but nice.