The Halloween house...2 days late but worth the wait

The past two years, Halloween was postponed (2011) and canceled (2012) due to horrible weather and no power. This year, we were all so excited for Halloween and to finally have a real Halloween. We were able to trick or treat on Halloween, but unfortunately, rain prevented this amazing Halloween display from being lit. Thankfully, the display was postponed until tonight, and it was worth the wait. 

I don't think this needs much narrating, so I will let the photos speak for themselves. I hope you enjoy this glimpse into how Halloween is celebrated here.

My neighbor might like Halloween even more than I do

I consider myself to be a big fan of Halloween (and I think most people who know me would agree). I have devoted many blog posts, photos, instagram pics, etc to pumpkins, costumes, decorations, more pumpkins, pumpkin lattes, brightly colored leaves and everything that screams autumn and Halloween.

Surprisingly though, I HATE to be scared. I don't watch scary movies or visit haunted houses, but I can definitely appreciate an amazingly decorated Halloween house.

While this house might seem scary, I think it captures scary in a beautiful way. 

I was thrilled when I moved to my town and I discovered that my neighbors took Halloween seriously. One neighbor does an amazing display. These images are from Halloweens past. Unfortunately, last night, it rained. He couldn't light up the display, but he will light it on Saturday, November 2nd. I will be there with my camera capturing it (and I will be sure to blog on it afterwards). 

I hope you enjoy this visit to my favorite Halloween house.

Frankenstorm....

Sorry for the delay in posting.  We lost power and internet with Hurricane Sandy, or more affectionately known as Frankenstorm.  I will start with the picture above---the giant pumpkin survived a hurricane.  Massive tree down behind him, but he is fine and he is the only thing "halloween" happening around here today.

With the media warning us non-stop about the impending storm, you can't help but start to panic.  All we heard was to be prepared for days or weeks without power.  Gas quickly sold out.

Water was quickly bought up, and most grocery stores looked like this.

The winds picked up during the day.  They were getting scary and darkness was approaching.  As the sun went down, we lost power.  We were really in the dark.  The winds were getting stronger and scarier and I just kept hoping no trees would fall.  Then we heard that crack sound a tree makes right before it falls.  I ran outside to look and watched this giant tree fall. 

Many many trees are down everywhere. School is closed. Most are still without power, but we are grateful. So many places were hit so badly.  We are ok, just powerless.

Halloween has been postponed. I will definitely do a "postponed Halloween" post once it happens.  To those hit by Hurricane Sandy, our thoughts are with you. For those celebrating Halloween today, Happy Halloween.

This time last year....

I had a blog post planned for today, but sometimes things don't go as planned. Instead, I decided to post about the weekend before Halloween last year.  I've been thinking about it a lot today as it seems everyone is talking about when/how bad Hurricane Sandy will hit our area.

So a little trip down memory lane to this time last year.

Last year, like usual, we were so excited for Halloween.  Costumes were ready. We followed all our fall rituals---finding the perfect pumpkin, watching the giant pumpkin grow, hayrides, apple cider, pumpkin spice lattes, watched Linus wait for the Great Pumpkin---we were so ready.  The only thing we weren't ready for....snow in October.  It snowed, and snowed, and snowed some more.  The trees still had leaves on the branches and couldn't handle the weight of the snow and the leaves; branches and trees began to fall, power went out. Halloween was postponed, officially (for everyone's safety, our town postponed Halloween a week).

So October 31st came and didn't look much like Halloween; instead, it looked like this.....

Pumpkins buried in the snow. At least the snow disappeared by postponed Halloween.

Even though many trees fell (including part of this tree, as you can see behind the ghost), the ghost stayed up! 

As the snow began to melt, the pumpkins were still there.  Halloween did go on almost a week late, and it was great (despite the blackout and snow that led up to it).