Halloween is always one of our favorite holidays. My spouse and I love it because our first date was on Halloween. We taught our kids to love it and it has always been a major holiday for us. Pumpkin carving and decorating have become a family tradition and a big event for the grandkids. Granddad enjoys it more than anyone. Halloween takes me into another imaginary world and provides an escape from our misery. It is especially welcome this year with the presidential election. I’m thinking about writing in the name of Count Dracula or Frankenstein for President because they would be a much better choice that the two we have.

This year the grandkids converted our front porch into a spook house. It’s a pretty elaborate thing as pictured above. You have to enter the enclosure to get the full effect and see the primary display. This is a coffin that we constructed from foam insulation material and painted black. I got the pattern off the internet and it took us several hours to construct, tape together with duct tape and paint. We have a skeleton in the coffin with a plastic skull containing eerie red lights that illuminate the sockets. There is also a dummy severed bloody leg and severed fingers. Eyeball lights and orange ornamental bulbs give the other illumination. At the entrance is a fog machine that gives it just the right effect for a foggy evening where scary things happen and ghost and the dead come back for a day of celebration each year.

The trees in the front yard are decorated with hanging skeletons and ghost. There is a skeleton embedded in the flower bed who looks like he is coming out of the ground. Two skeleton arms are sticking out of the scrubs that line the front walk way. The whole place is kind of scary. We also plan to have some scary music.

In the next couple of days I have to decide about a costume. I’m thinking about an Obama or McCain mask but that would be too frightening. I also fell a little guilty about frightening folks on Halloween because they are already frightening enough with the economy, energy crisis, global warming, Iraq and the choices for President. The only good thing about all this is that I will be celebrating Halloween on the porch with the grandkids.