When it comes to Halloween everyone thinks of the costumes, candy, and trick or treating. For me while those are parts of it. My memories fall more with my family and friends and as time went on I valued these memories more. 

     When it came to the holiday, my grandparents would dress up the house in not so scary decorations that were taped to the screen door, have Jack o Lantern themed leaf bags in the front yard, and we even had a doormat that made sounds when stepped on. My grandparents loved passing out candy for trick or treating as well. They wouldn't dress up, but they'd wait for trick or treaters and pass out candy. Sometimes I'd stick around the house and help while I'd wait for my friends to do my own round of trick or treating. 

     While trick or treating was nice and it was cool to just hang out with friends and get candy, I also had the privilege of going to office Halloween parties as a kid. My grandmother's work used to host them and I got to go to them. The halls, staff lounge, and conference rooms were decorated to be spooky, between the fake cobwebs, lights, spooky sounding music, along with the Halloween classics, and other decorations, it was nice. We had goodie bags of candy, witches hands, popcorn filled gloves with candy corn at the fingertips, and other little party goodies. They also had activities for us to do such as crafts and party games. It was a cute event for kids and I enjoyed it growing up. 

     Another thing from my childhood I can recall are the 'Haunted Mazes' that happened in my school for gym class and in my karate class. While all it was is mats stood up and made into a maze, it was fun with the dim lights and Halloween music added. The one at the gym had some extra stuff like a rope swing, crawling under a net, and more. 

      This last little story is special to me though, it's the story of my last Trick or Treat. I was eighteen at the time and my friends wanted to do Trick or Treating, I thought 'Sure, why not?' and went. we hit a few houses and over time I realized I was losing interest. I didn't think Trick or treating was bad by any means. I was just uninterested and that feeling lingered around for the whole time. I enjoyed hanging out with my friends and getting out of the house. However the trick or treating felt boring. The feeling wasn't there anymore and looking back, the feeling of growing out of it lingered for a couple years but didn't set in until that year. I tried to have fun at the very least since I was with friends and they were having fun. The part that made this my most memorable one yet was that it snowed a bit that year. We got a dusting the next morning, but it started to fall that night. We finished up Trick or Treating, I went home and that was that. Stopped Trick or Treating and just staying home. When I got out on my own I went Halloween parties instead and now I do go occasionally, but most of the time I just stay home. 

From me to you all, have a Happy and safe Halloween.