O Hallowed Halloween

Halloween at the Smee house was unlike any we have experienced before...in a good way.  As most of you know, Halloween is by far my favorite holiday and as mid September arrives, the Halloween containers come out of storage.

This is my haunted village. Tea lights flicker in each of the windows at night.

Now this is a true Halloween tree. I'm sorry but those black Christmas Halloween trees are stupid. An authentic Halloween tree should be creepy branches, not a want-a-be Christmas tree. Come on!

So, because sometimes we are big losers, we didn't really document our crazy Halloween with photographs. But I did get a picture of Miss Priss in her glow-in-the-dark bones costume. I'm usually not too keen on dressing up my pets, but when I saw this I couldn't resist.

In a nutshell, here's how it went down:  We strung yarn through these sticky eyeballs (seen below on my model) and hung them all over in our front entryway. We had black lights on so all kids could see were these glowing orbs. There were plenty of grossed out screams as the eyes stuck to them as they came to the door.

When the doorbell rang, my mom (hiding behind the door) would open it and all the kids would see is Mr. Smee dressed in a grim reaper costume directing them to our garage. Once they crossed the threshold, my mom would slam the garage door shut so they wouldn't come back that way.

Inside the garage we had a fog machine pumping out smoke, and a lone red light shining eerily on Mr. Briggs, who was sitting at a table wearing a really creepy mask. After various cheap scares (slamming the table, my dad or Mr. Smee's dad skulking behind them) and a cheap treat (see below) the kids were then directed to exit the premises through our side garage door. There I was waiting with silly string and their real treat - a treat bag with a full sized candy bar and various other delectable sweets. We have to really spoil our trick-or-treater's because we live in a private neighborhood where the houses are a bit farther apart. If they come to my house, then by golly they will be rewarded!

So, after they got their real treat, then they got their real trick, heh, heh. My brother (dressed up as my Halloween nemesis, Michael Meyers) would come out of hiding and chase them down our driveway with his killer weed eater. Okay, so we didn't have a chainsaw, but it sounded just like one!



The mad dash to set up, hoping kids won't show up yet.




The ghetto-looking exit where I waited with their real treat.




Mr. Briggs in position, but no fog.





Spooky garage in all its glory.




Dan in Michael Meyers attire messing with the fog machine.



So, after they got their real treat, then they got their real trick, heh, heh. My brother Dan (dressed up as my Halloween nemesis, Michael Meyers) would come out of hiding and chase them down our driveway with his killer weed eater. Okay, so we didn't have a chainsaw, but it sounded just like one!



Haunted village on Halloween with tealight lit. I love the flying ghosts.



The next day at church one of our neighbors said all they could hear were screams coming from our house all night, and they wondered if we were killing people :) Based on the feedback we received, as well as the fact a couple groups came back twice, our house was by far the best Halloween house in the area. Get ready kids, because we're already planning for next year! HA HA HA!!!!!!