It's the most wonderful time of the year! (in Montara)

When we bought our house the real estate disclosures warned us that Halloween was a big deal in our neighborhood. Although we had trick-or-treated here before, experiencing it as homeowners was a whole different ballgame. To prepare for it, we bought an unholy amount of candy - literally 5X what we would buy at our Pacifica house. Although Ren and the boys mocked me for it, thanks to our large and statistically reliable sample size, I can confirm that the FunDip that I bought was far and away the most popular choice.

But before trick-or-treaters and candy, there's family, friends and neighbors. This year was our 5th Annual Punkin' Carvin' competition. Isaac handily won our punkin' carvin' competition with a punkin' within a punkin' (cue Xzibit: "Yo dawg, we heard you like punkins, so...")! Ritesh and I competed in a lentil making competition, which I'll humbly admit that he won. My Dad, of course, went home with the real prize of the night, a massive bag of punkin' seeds (his favorite).

Isaac's second year in the row as the punkin' carvin' champ!

Actual Halloween night brought over local friends along with my parents to help field the onslaught of candy seekers. Ren and I were decked out in our finest 80s fashion, and I now realize why I never wore a track suit in the 80s. Our lovely neighbors brought over home made whiskey shots for us to enjoy and along with wine and beer, we had a spirited night in every sense of the word. Next year, I'll spend more time on my spoooky playlist so we don't have to listen to creepy spooky stuff like Michael Jackson's Thriller and hopefully we can introduce these younguns to some elevated musical stylings.

Montara Halloween is a rare treat, take a look for yourself, and make plans to join us next year!