A Montana Halloween!

It's like any other Halloween, only bigger. Families from out in the more rural valley drive into Hamilton for trick-or-treating. And on our street, a neighbor's haunted house is a huge local event, with entry fees of canned goods going to a local food pantry. We hear moaning and heavy metal music the entire week before Halloween. But the music takes me back, and it's all for a great cause. (I donated our old iron railings from before the rehab, and the haunted house used them upside down as a wonky front "gate" wrapped in cobwebs! Very creative.)

One of my six carved pumpkins to scare (er, greet) the little children.

Another creation of mine, a green puking pumpkin, is a favorite of parents and kids, alike, and also is my personal fave. (Would you believe this was a volunteer from our vegetable garden -- some aberrant zucchini perhaps?)

But getting the most attention at our house is Eric Milner's noisy, battery-operated, motion-activated rat-in-a-trap! It surprises one little girl and she shrieks, "Bad rat! Bad rat!" until her mom convinces her it's all in fun. As she walks away she says a shaky, "I'm sorry," to candy-giver of the moment, Kelsey Milner.

Best overall Halloween house goes to Heather and Jeff Kempka from across the street, with their raven-studded front porch and Hitchcock's "The Birds" projected onto a sheet there. Heather, a nurse in training, gets home just in time to slip on her sheet and start dolling out not only candy but also spider rings and spooky stickers!

Our friend Mary Barton dresses as Satan, with a name tag reading, "Hello, my name is Mitt." Hahahahaha.

Nakia Glenn, a neighbor, is the witchiest of women as she gets ready for the evening's festivities.

Jeff Kempka, a zombie mechanic (?), stops by on his way to help out at the haunted house.

As skies darken, it's non-stop kids, kids, kids! They come in a swirl. Sometimes there's even a line of them down our front walk. (Meanwhile, five of us grown-ups are sitting on the front porch, eating Alex's homemade chili, drinking wine and probably looking as scary as anything else to those kids.)

Lining up for candy!

I try to make our new orange front door a little pumpkin-like.

We give out maybe 800 pieces of miniature candy -- bags and bags of it from Costco.

The night is about to end as I blow out candles and turn off lights. We settle down to watch TV. "Rap, Rap, Rap!" goes the front-door knocker. And it's more new neighbors -- Karol Klakken and John (sorry John, I'll remember your last name soon!), elegantly dressed in gown (Karol) and Dracula in collar-and-cape (John) trick-or-treating, for a glass of wine! They are 30-somethings, so we invite them in, get out the red wine -- a color that matches the blood dripping down the sides of their mouths. Ooooooooh,  scary as well as a wonderful way to end Halloween!!

All content copyright by Becky Homan.