Unpacking the good stuff.

[Andybev01]

I'm almost finished setting up my apartment and I saved the best things for last, as an incentive.

[Andybev01]

...and...

[Murfreesboro]

Andy, how beautiful that is! What a joy to wake up to a place like that.

[Andybev01]

It was a loooong time coming.

[Murfreesboro]

I love your rooster! I have a rooster, too, a metal one, in my living room. I had a pet rooster as a child and have always had a fondness for that motif.

You are an artist with lighting.

[Andybev01]

Thank you.

Lighting is somewhat of a hobby.

I had a very realistic rooster years ago that was made with real feathers with life-like glass eyes.

It was on clearance at Michael's for less than $10.

I somehow lost it between California and Oregon.

[Murfreesboro]

I hope whoever found it appreciated it. I bought mine on sale at Hobby Lobby.

[Andybev01]

Finally found my black lights.

[Murfreesboro]

So beautiful!

I still have to erect my skeletons and graveyard in my front yard. But the lights are in place, and my ghosties are dancing around their "bonfire" (orange lights up a tree).

We spent a fortune on candy tonight.

[Andybev01]

I've eaten a fortune in candy since it first hit the stores in August.

[Murfreesboro]

I avoid buying it for that reason. BUT, I always buy candy I really like, so that if we have any left over, we will eat it and not waste it.

[Andybev01]

My tradition is that when foot traffic slows down I empty the bowl into the last toters bag before closing up for the night.

[Murfreesboro]

I am not that generous! I was spoiled by too many years of free ToT candy. Starting about 1991, and not ending until c 2013, I had ToTers in my own kids, and I was accustomed to having free candy in the house post holiday. The first year I had to buy it without having any ToT haul from the kids, I thought, What gives? So I always plan to have some left over.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

When I was still single I would always give the last kid that showed up the rest of the candy, but now that I have kids, I usually give any extra candy we have to them and their friends. That is, of course, after my wife and I pick out the good candy for ourselves.

[Andybev01]