Happy Halloween. Over the years, I haven’t made too much of the holiday. We’re not the ones to do a lot of decorating of our home. I’m not a big fan of wearing costumes. In my mind, All Hallows Eve doesn’t cary the meaning that I find in the celebration of All Saints. However, this will be our fourth Halloween that we have lived in our current home and it is in a neighborhood where a lot of people gather to celebrate Halloween. More than other places where we have lived, we see a steady stream of children and their parents out going door to door to gather treats. Our grandchildren live on a farm with neighbors much more spread out and they like to come to our neighborhood to go trick or treat. They are not alone. Children from around the area come to our neighborhood where the houses are close together, the streets are narrow and winding, cars go slow, and there are a lot of homes that are decorated in celebration of the Holiday.

There are a few houses in our neighborhood that have a similar attitude toward the holiday as our niece. She told us on this visit that she always decorates for Halloween on Labor Day so she has two full months of decorations and Halloween fun. And there are quite a few homes in our neighborhood where the decorations are more elaborate than our niece’s home.

Our agenda for today is to drive home in time to make supper for our grandchildren, their parents, some of their friends and the parents of the friends. We already have treats on hand so the we will be ready for all of the children who will come. We have a pretty good system. With hundreds of children coming to our home, we try to have plenty of treats. However, we’ve run short the last three Halloweens as the number of children seems to increase each year. The problem has been solved each year by our grandchildren, who are going out around the neighborhood and who gather far more treats than they can consume. They come back to our house, sort through their candy, and give some of it back to us and we in turn hand it out to the children coming to our door. It is a form of recycling, I guess.

Since we have moved, I have begun to look forward to celebrating Halloween. I sit out on our front porch and watch the parade of children in costumes going by. I hand out treats and enjoy seeing the children as they come and go. Sometimes i keep track of which costumes seem to be most popular. I’m pretty sure that we can count on a dozen firefighters, some of whom have fairly authentic bunker gear. There will be quite a few children in costumes depicting characters from animated movies. And there will be a few in inflatable costumes, often dinosaurs or dragons. I enjoy seeing the ones in home made costumes. The display of imagination of children and their parents is a joy.

Today’s drive home brings our week-long visit to Oregon to a close. We’ve had a good time. We’ve enjoyed some beautiful sights, some great time with family, and a reminder of how beautiful the Oregon coast is. We’ve seen our share of rain which is typical for autumn on the coast, but we’ve also had some sunny times with blue skies. I was able to get out one of my kites and fly it, a treat that I don’t often enjoy.

When we lived in the middle of the country, I didn’t understand how much variation there is of coastal locations. The Oregon coast is directly on the Pacific with a regular surf and a lot of sandy beaches. We live on a protected bay of the Salish Sea, which is protected from the larger waves of the Pacific by a lot of large offshore islands. Our beach is gravel and there are days when the water in our bay is completely flat with no waves at all. Many of the sea creatures are similar. Walking on the Oregon beaches and peering into tidal pools we see familiar crabs, sea stars, jelly fish, and other species. When we eat out a local restaurants the menus are similar. But the scenery is different and the sound of the ocean is different.

It is good to visit. It is good to return home. With a bit of luck we’ll ease through Portland traffic and pass Seattle during times when things are not too crowded. The amount of traffic in Seattle can easily make the difference of an hour or more, but our timing should be pretty good. We’ll see a bit more traffic in Portland as we’ll leave as many people are heading to work, but we’ll allow enough time to get home with time to spare and we have things pretty well prepared for a quick transition from traveling to hosting guests for Halloween.

One of the advantages of having collected many years of experience is that we’re pretty good at transitions. We enjoy traveling and we enjoy being at home. We delight in quiet days without many obligations and we revel in busy days with a lot of coming and going. The variety in our lives is something that we find to be invigorating.

Still, as children walk around our neighborhood this evening they might notice that our house is not one of the ones with elaborate decorations. We don’t have any giant spiders on our roof and there is no imitation graveyard on our front lawn. I’ll be passing out treats dressed as a 70-something man with a white beard and not much hair on top of his head. I won’t look quite like a typical Pacific northwest retiree as i don’t go in for short pants and I won’t be wearing sandals, but I shouldn’t be too scary for the children.

It will be a fun and exciting day and I may sleep in a bit tomorrow morning. Life goes on and I am grateful to be a part of the flow. Happy Halloween!