Halloween Night

We had a lot more activity on our Facebook page this year, so we really weren't sure how many new faces to expect for Halloween. The Saginaw News website had advertised our page for us and we gained a ton of new folks from there. Nick and I started setting up around 5:45, and people were already out and about (what is UP with people trick or treating in the daylight?? Stop it.) We kept telling them to come back. Because really...you're only adding to my stress. I'm trying to organize and place each set of pumpkins, get candles in them, light them all, and then continue to do candle checks until every pumpkin has enough. Oh, and grab some photos too before the sidewalk becomes too crowded.

Once the crowds started, the never really stopped. In the past they've come in waves: 20 people, no people, 30 people, 5 people, 45 people, 10 people, etc. All night. This year? Steady 20+ people on the sidewalk at all times. I mean it never really seemed to stop. It was kind of insane, but it in a very good way. Bill was handing out candy like crazy, and I was putting glow bracelets on kids (I found a good deal on some so we had 200 to give out and they were gone about halfway through the night.) Nick was on candle patrol all night and also handing out business cards with our web address on them.

We had several friends stop by this year, which means so much to us when people head on over to our neighborhood once they've finished in their own. I talked to so many people who had no idea we even existed until the Saginaw shout out, so that was really helpful. I have a feeling next year will be even more major.

Typically by around 9:45, the crowds are dwindling and around 10 we make the call to start blowing out the candles and tossing the pumpkins into the back of the truck. This year? We said goodbye to our last visitors at 11:15, and one of the last couples that came by even bought one of my pumpkins to use at a party they were having the next day. I had just carved it on Friday so there was no mold yet. As we were tossing them out a guy stopped and asked if he could have one, so he took my Frozen pumpkin home. Don't even ask me why. It was scraped so thin and was so delicate that I would be surprised if it made the ride home.

2014 was a success. I'm been part of this for 10 Halloweens now, and they just keep growing! 2015 is going to be awesome - I'm shooting for 60 pumpkins. We had 44 this year. 16 more? No problem....