I do always think of him when I hear that phrase.
I bought $52 over 3 bags worth of candy two weeks ago. All good stuff, Reese’s, Payday, Snickers. I brought in into the breakroom freezer at work (it’s all but empty) so I could move some stuff around at home and forgot to bring it home for like five or six work-days. Very risky, high likelihood of leaks, pests, bagpeckers!
I make the rounds and take pictures of the Holloween displays every year and make a video slide show. Here’s the 2025 video. Or you can look at the photo album here.
Oh, nice! I especially like the headless horseman with the rainbow backdrop. 
My neighbors across the street and next door have really upped their Halloween decoration game so I had to scramble to get something together. I ordered a garage door cover from GarageBuddy(dot)com and despite taking 2 weeks to ship directly from China, and me ordering the wrong size, I am very very pleased. I got compliments from several people. I put up some blue string lights.
I quit doing trunk-or-treat a couple years ago but I still do a special trick-or-treat event for special needs kids at the schools, under the guise of representing my city (I’m on city council). They let the special needs kids and their families t-o-t around the high school track and local businesses & groups hand out candy from tables. I pick a theme for our table every year, this year is “under the sea”. I wanted to get this excellent lobster costume so that’s what I went as. My fellow council members were a shark and a turtle.
Oh also my friends and I have gotten together every year since 2000 to carve pumpkins. This is the first year we didn’t do it, as we’re all super busy. But we all did them separately, at least.
Are so many people that talented, or are there some professional decorators involved as well?
My neighborhood (Willow Glen) has a lot of folks who go all out with their Halloween decorations. There are several other neighborhoods in the area that have great spooky showcases, Tait Avenue in Los Gatos is also considered one of the go-to spots for trick-or-treaters.
Some of the photos were taken in Oakhurst at the Southgate Station Antique Collective. The vendors have a really impressive collection of Halloween stuff that they put on display every year.
I had high hopes for this day. My son has a half day, so my husband and I dropped him off in the morning, went to breakfast, and then attended the elementary school parade of cute kids in their costumes.
But the breakfast was mediocre, and both of us are tired. I’m feeling pretty run down today. I also had to do extra work today because a coworker failed to get me information on time yesterday.
I’m bracing myself for the next phase, heading out to my husband’s cousin’s house to do the Halloween thing in their neighborhood. Lots and lots of small children in the family, and they are all a bit wild.
This is not an evening I would be choosing for myself. I belong in a warm bed, sleeping. The things we do for our kids.
Somebody at my work dressed as a bandit, but with a crown and other costume jewelry. They were the Louvre thief. I thought that was clever!
My neighborhood is adjacent to the local high school. When there’s a home game, people park on our street. It wouldn’t be too much of a problem but we don’t have sidewalks, so walking happens in the street. We generally don’t mind it - it’s only 6x a year, and is only bad when the team is doing well. We all just deal with it.
But this year the team made the playoffs, and has a home playoff game tonight (Oct 31). A neighbor reached out to me and asked what the city planned to do about traffic/parking on our street, as I’m on city council. The police chief said he doesn’t have officers to spare (I agree) but they are going to let us close the street. As in, the service department dropped of “road closed” signs and barriers in my yard and I am going to put them out, with the help of some neighbors.
The neighborhood is shaped like a “P” with the only entrance at the bottom of the P, where my house is, so if we can stop the flow of traffic there we should be good. I’ve asked people to meet me at 5:30 to help…I’ve never done this before. Wish me luck!
The things we do for OTHER people’s kids, too 
A church down the street is having a bonfire ( legit scary as winds are steady at 21 mph) and pizza.
They’re preaching and are offering pizza.
Obviously I need food so will check it out ( and stand upwind). Is that correct, upwind?
Oh, it got even better. We left the house late, my husband made a wrong turn, my husband and my kid got into an argument, my kid lost his shit, my husband pulled over, my kid continued to lose his shit, then politely asked to go back home because he thought he would be sad the whole time trick or treating. So we turned around to go home - my husband utterly shut down emotionally, traffic was an absolute nightmare, and just as we got to our road, my frazzled husband made another wrong turn, which, due to construction and a massive car accident, added 40 minutes to our trip.
So we were in traffic for 90 minutes without traveling any more than a two mile radius from our home. For no reason. 
Me, I’m just happy to be home. I didn’t want to go anyway. My kid didn’t either, apparently, because he’s happy as a clam right now. My husband is recuperating.
I’m here same reason as everyone else, Praise Cheesus.
Three Halloween polls tonight!
Lol, i use a regular kitchen knife for the big stuff, and a pocket knife with a narrow blade for details
I’m surprised no one has answered the poll about other decorations (other than me.) There’s an option for “none”, i think.
And around here, Halloween decorations are huge this year. Nearly the same level as Christmas decorations. Someone is selling an enormous inflatable pumpkin (maybe 12 feet tall and 20 wide) that I’ve seen in four different lawns. There are 12’ skeletons, skeletons climbing out of graves, three fates around a giant pot who address you as you walk by, and hundreds of little pumpkins and gourds for the traditionalists. We didn’t even have a lot of kids wandering around, just a ton of decorations.
The best one I’ve seen is a Beetlejuice sandworm emerging from their lawn, full life-size.
I was Thing One. My boss was the Cat in the Hat.
Yesterday, it was just him and me, so I got questions on Thing Two’s whereabouts. Today, a Friday, and thus a busy day, we had a whole bunch of Things running around.
It was fun. A Costume consisting of a red shirt and a sticker provided by someone else is my level of effort.
We had a few Louvre thieves at my school, but most of them were wearing safety vests like the real ones. Of my students, I think my favorite costume was a Gucci flip-flop (her friend was the other half of the pair, but I didn’t have her). I also saw a couple of very good Oompa-Loompas, and the Best Group Costume, among the students, was won by a group of Inside Out emotions.
For the faculty contest, the math department construction workers were well-received, but the guidance department won with everyone dressed as jellyfish. The costumes were based on a clear umbrella, with battery string lights, giant googley eyes, and twisty streamers, plus matching shirts that said “Don’t be jelly”.
I hope this went well. Sounds like it might be something to do every Halloween - having a safe (safer) place for the children to run around while trick or treating is always good.
My senior year in high school I drove to the football game and was driving a bit fast and was rightly reprimanded by a parent who was out with their children. Children and traffic do not mix well.
We have a few Halloween decorations, but they stay inside, as they are for us, and not to give the idea that we might give out candy. Halloween is not a thing here (Switzerland), so I don’t feel the need to share the Halloween spirit with others.
We watched the European version of The Shining last night. Which isn’t necessarily a Halloween movie, but it is horror.