For Halloween in 2002, when Mason was only ten months old, Susan and I dressed him up in a costume (Tigger, I think) and took him “trick-or-treating” at the homes of our friends and family. For the past twenty years our Halloweens have revolved around celebrating with one or both of our children. Now that the kids have moved out into their own place, Halloween felt a little… empty this year.

Susan spent two weeks of October being sick before finally passing her cold on to me. We’re feeling better now, but neither of us were feeling great during peak Halloween decorating season. As a result, we didn’t start pulling out decorations until roughly two hours before trick-or-treating was scheduled to begin. Our tubs of Halloween decorations out in the garage didn’t even get opened. The minute work ended I dragged my 12′ skeleton out from the workshop and set him up in the front yard. We raided my office for a few random skulls and rolled Mick Rib (my 6′ skeleton) out onto the front porch. This year I installed some LED rope lighting in Skelly’s rib cage which really made him pop once it got dark outside.

Earlier in the day, Susan went to Sam’s Club and spent $60 on three boxes of full-sized candy bars (Milky Way, Three Musketeers, Snickers, and Twix). We already had a bowl of candy and I wasn’t irritated but more confused as to why she would go buy more candy, but later she said she remembered how rare and exciting it was to receive a full-size candy bar on Halloween as a kid, and that she wanted to do the same thing for kids. When I was a kid, I received full-sized candy bars so rarely that I can remember the exact houses where I got them, so after she said that, I got it. In a way, it’s the same reason I wanted to set up my 12′ skeleton. Give the kids something to remember.

At 5pm the temperature was 37F, and it only got colder as the sun dropped. Susan and I spent the evening on the front porch listening to an unintentionally hilarious kid-friendly Halloween mix on Spotify. About halfway through the evening I dragged out one of our portable heaters and set it up next to us. With the fan on high and the heat cranked up, the heater was able to warm the surrounding air just enough to help us make it through the night.

I’d estimate we had about twenty groups of trick-or-treaters this year with a total of about thirty kids. In between groups, Susan texted the kids to see what they were doing and I scrolled through social media on my phone using my numb fingers. By the time 8:30pm rolled around (the official end of trick-or-treating here), we wasted no time in moving inside to warm up. Susan made me a mug of hot chocolate before running a warm bath for herself.

While we didn’t have a bad Halloween, we’re still kind of adjusting to this new reality that… it’s just us. Empty nest syndrome is real, folks.