Halloween!

Some people really know how to do Halloween up right. And, I'm happy to say that I know some of them and live around a lot of them.

Like all little kids, I dressed up to go trick-or-treating. I can't remember exactly when I stopped coming up with Halloween costumes -- probably by high school at the latest -- and I only remember one Halloween costume between then and last year. Of course, last year marked the first Trump girls Halloween where we were the Spice Girls, including David Beckham. During the perfect day in August this year, M came up with our costume for this year. We were the four seasons, Mother Nature and Father Time. Unfortunately, Mother Nature and Father Time were sick this weekend so it was just the Seasons on Saturday night.

We attended a party that had an Alice in Wonderland theme. The details were incredible. Bottles of wine were re-labeled as "embalming juice" and "spider venom" all bearing a "Drink Me" tag. The table holding the snacks was set up as the Madhatter's tea party. Mannequins were dressed a characters from the movie. And our hostess was a dead ringer for Anne Hathaway as the White Queen. People actually flew in for the party so the costumes were all generally good and creative. Two girls as the Double Rainbow. Medusa. A Jersey Shore group but with the genders flipped, so a bearded Snooki. On our way home, we stopped at Butch McGuire's for a drink to see even more costumes. As we walked home, we knew our costume was a success because a drunk girl in line to get in some bar yelled out "heeeeeeeey, you're the four seasons!"

Yesterday, I learned that my new neighborhood goes insane on Halloween. The streets were overrun by children. And, parents holding wine glasses.

The houses had been decorated for the past week or so. The most incredible one had a giant witch with eyes that lit up red, on a broom in front of full moon that changed colors depending on the time of day. Some turned their front yards into graveyards. Others had twenty or so jack-o-laterns decorating their front steps and balconies. But, on Sunday, the houses dialed it up a few more notches.

One house opened up to become a mini haunted house, offering face painting and fortune telling. Another house had what appeared to be mannequins of Frankenstein, Dracula, and the scarecrow out -- appeared to be, that is, until they came alive. Many a scared child had to be told that Frankenstein was a nice monster. One house had a magician doing tricks involving fire. Another house had characters doing the Wizard of Oz. Someone had set up a projector, including sound, to show Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin on the side of their building. There were fog machines. Some houses handed out full-size candy. It really was an incredible display of Halloween festivity, all individually orchestrated.

Its almost too bad that Halloween only comes once each year.