Joyeux Halloween

We hung our skeleton guy in the tree, put our skull candles out, turned on all the lights in the house, and waited for the trick-or-treaters to come. They did not. Our neighbor finally came by with her son and his friend. She informed us that kids will not knock unless it is 100% clear you want them too. She noticed that our porch light did not have a light bulb, so she got her ladder and a light bulb and fixed that problem. She also told us to stand outside. This all helped a bit. However, many families were still passing us by - despite my attempts to wave them down. Then we noticed that a neighbor across the street had a string of blue lights on her porch. So, I ran to the basement and got some Christmas lights. This worked! We probably had between 50 and 75 kids come by. This experience was very different than anywhere I have lived before, where, if you didn't want kids to come by or if you ran out of candy, you had to turn off every light in the house and hide in the basement.