Fear is nature's warning signal to get busy.

After a couple months of putting together blinking headstones and creepy cadavers, it was going to be all for nothing, as the rain came down and the wind continued to blow wet leaves down the block.

We scampered upstairs to put on our make-up and get into costume, so that we could at least be ready to great the drippy, rain soaked, trick or treaters.

As we emerged from the bathroom, with our faces ghastly green, we couldn't believe it! We could see sunlight!

We rushed to the living room, that looked like a Halloween triage unit, and started running things out to the front lawn.

Fog machines, boom boxes, corpse, coffin, misters, strobe lights...check check check!

Being on a Saturday, the lil ones came early. Including some of our littlest fans; our fauxphews. An astronaut and a mailman, as cute as can be.

"Can we come in and see spookytown?"

"Of course!" I said in my British, crone voice.

I ushered them in, with two more neighborhood kids walking up the path. They looked nervous that they would be brought into the house next.

"Oh no.....you stay out here. We have enough children for dinner tonight!"

That whites-of-the-eyes stare is priceless!

Grandpa, stuffed and chillin by the front door, kept me company as I sat on the stoop. Gourd shaker, perfect for casting voodoo spells, hidden by my side. The strobe light at my back, the kids didn't know if I was alive or not. Till I shook my Wiccan rattle and screeched, "Why do you bother the Babba Yaga? What do you want from me?"

Most froze dead in their tracks, many turned on their heel and fled, candy less.

"If you do not come to the Babba Yaga......Babba Yaga will come to YOU!"

I would rise up off the stoop, crouching, then slowly, as I advanced, I would be on my toes, close to 6 feet tall! With my gypsy skirt, it probably looked like I was levitating by the time I got to the kids.

One group of kids hit a car at the end of the drive, diving in, screaming, "DRIVE...JUST GO!!!" I made the door handle before they pulled off, pressing my face into the rolled up window. "The Babba Yaga curses you till your dying day!!!"

Ah the warm feeling in my chest, knowing when they put their heads on their pillow that night, the scene would play over and over on their eyelids.

Our neighbors, not only enjoyed the panic that ran from our house, but started "feeding" us children, "Make sure you see the witch back there....she has great candy!"

The witching hour ended. We hauled our wears back indoors. The living room, once again, looking like the backstage lot of a horror film movie. Lights out, window shut, door locked. We were alone with left over candy, left by kids to scared to reach for it. A reward for a job well done.

Another year of creating sentences like, "He came further up the driveway this year than last....there's always next year."

Yes....yes there is.