For the last night of my time off, we all sat down to paint scary haunted houses.  It was great fun for the kids.  Miranda went for a brown, bloody sort of theme and Isaac’s house had a bit of a super heroes theme going for it.  We painted them up and then topped them off with glow in the dark puff paint on all the edges.  They looked really neat with the lights off.  After we finished and cleaned up the kitchen table, we decided to start up the fire pit and make some smores!  While getting everything ready, an October memory flashed through my mind.  A memory of me when I was nine or ten, sitting in front of my Mickey Mouse record player listening the Disney Haunted Mansion record.  I can’t remember how many times I listened to it.  I knew every single pop and click coming from the needle as it slid over the surface of the record.  It was a great memory.  Well, I got online and after a good deal of searching found a Disney fan that has transfered the discontinued and largely forgotten LP to MP3 and within a few moments it was on my iPod.  Later, as we were all gathered around the fire with sticky, smore covered fingers, lit by the silvery reflection of a not quite full moon, I introduced this old friend to the kids, explaining what fun it had been for me to listen to as a child, and how the story followed the Haunted Mansion ride that they enjoyed so much when we visited Disney World.  They loved it immensely.  Together we remembered things we liked about the ride and the fun we had there.  Although the kids were reluctant at first, I think we went through the Haunted Mansion ride four or five times in a row the first day we were there.  We listened to the whole story two times through and then later, inspired by the spooky night, we attempted to take our own “ghost” photos in the back yard.  It was a great end to a great week off.  I look forward to more times like these as the clock ticks on...