Halloween, that is.

Candy corn, cheesy costumes, fun times, scary movies…

Yeah, I’m a total dork about Halloween.

I love it. And I love giving out candy to all the kids in the neighborhood. As much as I enjoyed growing up out in the country, we didn’t get tons and tons of trick or treaters ringing the doorbell. Instead, I remember going in town with my folks, or with my friends when I got older, and ending the night with homemade glazed donuts at Grandma King’s house. Mmmm, those were AWESOME! And worth putting off stuffing your face with candy to make sure you had room for those donuts at the end of the night!

Now, Grandma’s been gone for about six years. And I’ve started a bit of my own Halloween tradition.

See, my sister and my cousins, and all the family that live out in the country all have little ones who love to trick or treat, and they would stop at all the different family houses to see everyone before hitting the street in town. This meant that the parents had to rush home from work, get the kids into costume, make the rounds, and hope the kids weren’t cranky by the time they actually got to ring some doorbells to fill their candy buckets.

I, on the other hand, bought a house on one of the heaviest trick-or-treating streets in town.

Which means that we’re averaging 800 plus pieces of candy given out in an hour and a half. It’s NUTS. And even if I LOVE Halloween, that’s a serious dent in the pocketbook.

The first year I lived in the house, I had bought two or three bags of candy, and we ran out in minutes. I ended up calling my sister and my cousin and begging them to bring reinforcements…and the idea was born.

The past few years, much of the family that lives out in the country, a bunch of friends, and a whole lot of kids, all show up at my house. They all bring candy to pass out, and a bit of cash, we order a small mountain of pizza, we decorate the house, and the kids all have a warm place to come back to, hot chocolate if it’s THAT kind of night, and a base of operations to go between candy runs. We’ve even got a firepit in the backyard for S’mores if the weather cooperates. It’s become a yearly thing. Last year, we even put together goody bags with Halloween trinkets for the little kids who were based out of our house. The Husband and I ended the night last year with an exhausted screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. And wine.

I’m totally looking forward to it.

What are your Halloween traditions?