Witches and Goblins and Ghosts...

...oh my! Just finishing up a day week of mourning! It happens every year! I HATE to take down Halloween. This year I thought it would be better because we were out of town until 3 days after the "real" day. I thought I would be more than ready to take it down. I was wrong! We got home later in the afternoon so except for taking down the outside decorations (mostly so my neighbors didn't think I was calendar-challenged), I turned on all of the lights once again and lit the candles and we sat and enjoyed the ambiance one last time.

Then, morning came and making that FIRST move is still so difficult for me...but make it I did! It has taken us 3 days so far and I am thinking one yet to go but giving ourselves a day of rest as we were at the football field early this morning for Harrison and are about to sit down to watch the Gator game.

Since we are well into November, I think I will do a Halloween wrap-up of our trip and save all of the other fun things we did for another post.

Halloween was a busy day for us...many other fun things happening as well but we looked towards trick-or-treating. The Old Northeast in St. Pete really does it up right and my daughter knew we were in for a bunch of kids. Even though we were prepared, we really weren't...don't know if the holiday falling on a Saturday had any bearing, but we gave out over 1000 pieces of candy and then had to do this:

We felt so bad but everyone was so nice and by the looks of the bags these kids were dragging, they had more than enough to satisfy any sweet tooth.

The decorations in this neighborhood are fantastic! Here are just a few.

We spent the entire evening out on the porch with three dogs and lots of kids coming and going. Caitlin was at her homecoming dance but returned in time to head out to see the fun and Olivia and her friends helped us with candy disbursement before heading out to do a bit of trick-or-treating themselves.

I also managed to snap a few pictures of my daughter's decor. This is her first Halloween back in this neighborhood and this house so she was kind of starting from scratch. I think she did a great job but she tells me she is already planning some changes for next year.

This is her dining room and the first room that is almost totally finished. It was a plain, square room when she bought the house and is now full of paneled walls, built-ins and a beautiful coffered ceiling-all of her own design.

So I think that puts the period on Halloween 2015 for us-except for finishing taking down and putting away that is. So much more to share from our trip but I will leave that for another post. Stay tuned. And yes, Thanksgiving is up and almost ready for photos too.