Sunday, November 1, 2026

A Halloween Spooktacular!


For each the past several years, we've hosted a semi-elaborate Halloween party prior to the big day, but our schedule this year has been busy enough that it wasn't very practical. In lieu of that, we invited a few friends from the neighborhood to come around on Halloween night for a little bonfire, hot dogs/side treats, a few good spirits, and some flinging of goodies at any trick-or-treaters brave enough to visit. Friends Joe & Callie, Bob & Yvonne, Samaire, and Anne moseyed over at 6:00 p.m., just in time to greet the early trick-or-treat crowd.
 
Things on that front started slowly, but over the course of evening, the youngsters kept coming—and at a couple of points, we had a regular traffic jam out front. Most of the kids wore cool costumes, and we gave out two big honking cauldrons of candy. They kept showing up until around 10:00 p.m., which is later than our usual stragglers. At the end of the evening, we estimated we had about 70, which is a pretty respectable showing for this area, and possibly a record at our house. One of my favorite treats of the evening was a visit from my seventh-grade history teacher, Ms. Tillery (whom we'd seen at the Spirits of the Dead event at the Virginia Museum of  Natural History just the other night), and her daughter, Kerry—both in surpassingly awesome witch regalia.
 
Most of the gang departed before too late, though Joe & Callie hung out for a bit—long enough for us to put on The Rocky Horror Picture Show and dance the Time Warp. And we sure did it... again.