2018
In 2018, we were between houses. The landlord at the Silver Spring house had pulled a shitty on us. Worse move even than the one from Florida. So for Halloween, we were in an airbnb, and all our decorations were in storage. We ran out and bought our pumpkin family and some path lights. I don’t think we got any kids, but it was good to decorate a little.
2019-20 Frederick
Just before the plague, we settled in Frederick, MD. We were in a townhouse with a tiny yard, so I couldn’t do much, but I could decorate the garage. This is the first year I opened and decorated the garage and handed out treats from there. It worked so well, I never looked back.
And then, the plague hit. In 2020, I skipped. I thought it was the smart thing to do. By the next year, we’d moved to Virginia.
2021 – Present in Glen Allen
We’ve never lived anywhere as long as we’ve lived here in Virginia. It’s nice to settle in, though I know we’ll likely end up moving again soon. We have become known as a Halloween house. Every year our neighbors anticipate the raising of the giant cat, and on the night, we open the garage with some new decorative setup.
That first year, though, was still the plague times. I didn’t want to skip again, so I built a very silly contraption with a very silly monster, and rolled Kinder Joy eggs down a chute and into his mouth. I had speakers set up to a mic so the monster could talk. A few kids thought it was automated and tried to say “trick or treat” multiple times. It was a lot of fun. The setup is best seen in video:
2022 was a light display.
In 2023, I’d collected enough Lemax to do a display of everything villagey. After that, I actually got rid of the Lemax because it’s crap. It’s pretty, but you can’t breath on it wrong without it breaking. I still have more sturdy pieces by Department 56 and Bradford Exchange. The village was a big hit.
2024 was miscellaneous with a lot of skulls:
Finally, this year I brought out the blow molds:
Next year, I want to get my physical issues fixed so I can BUILD THINGS AGAIN.
