Candle Jars full of snow!

Here are some candle jars after the snowfall.

Tombstones in the snow

Chris setup some tombstones in the backyard as the snow started to fall the 2nd time. This is what they looked like after a day.

Now that is snow!

Ok, so we thought it was cool when it first snowed and we took some fun pictures. And Calvin and Hobbes do look cool with a bit of snow around them but this was too much. They don't look so cool when you can barely see them!

Snow at the Davis'

Some pictures of the house during the recent snowfall.

Spider gates

Standing Stones

Snow on the skull candles

Snow on the gargoyle

Snow on a rose

Skelingos

I know, a little bit of snow and us NW people get all stupid.

It SNOWED!

We always like it when it snows when we have the Calvin and Hobbes stuff up. The snowmen look so much better in snow.

We were in the Umbrella Parade

Milwaukie does a small umbrella parade as a prelude to lighting the city hall Christmas tree. People decorate their umbrellas and march along the street towards the city hall. The HS Band performed and people sang carols. Chris' mom joined us along with some of our friends and their kids. We wore our Halloween hats and coats and decorated our black umbrellas. We had fun.

Frog (fog) Juice

Changed fog juice this year. Went to place my usual order at the Froggy's Fog Juice vendor table at HAuntCon last year and they introduced me to "swamp juice" - I used to get their standard product, which is way better than that crap they sell retail.

He said it would hang to the ground better and was much thicker. I worried a bit about that since I am on a very busy street and the day my display causes an accident, that will be my last year.

We used it this year and it was perfect. Along with the new fog chiller (when working) did a great job of keeping the fog low and rolling down the hill - creepy! Oh, that is when the timer for the fog machine worked :) I think we have that problem solved now too. (It is always something:)

The extra added bonus - that was noticed by a few people was the Sinister Scents fog juice additive. We mix Gothic and Rainforest together to get our graveyard smell.

All good, except for Froggy's - because the fog was so good, I only used half of what I usually do. So I won't need to buy any this year. But I have to stop by and talk to Adam and Chris about Washington Cabernet's...and frogs of course.

Details, details, details.

The year of the cake

2009 was the year of the cake at Davis Graveyard.

We had two cake reference tombstones.

The first was The Cake is a Lie, as all my geek friends know, that is a reference to the game Portal. Which is very funny - it has the best theme song for a game - ever!

Cake of Death - Eddie Izzard is one of my favorite comedians so he was due for a tombstone :)

This epitaph is in reference to his famous "Cake or Death" routine.

One of the comment cards mentioned that they "loved the cake tombstones" because she is a baker. I have been meaning to email her to find out if she knows the meaning behind those epitaphs. :)

Our trip to the coast

Normally we always go to the Inn at Otter Crest for our anniversary right after Halloween. This year we waited a bit before taking off. And we painted the living room. We also weren't sure where we were going to stay. Turns out Otter Crest is closed until Jan 2009. So we had some gift certificates to Tolovana Inn at Cannon Beach so we booked a room on Hotels.com and headed out there Wednesday night. Just so happens that is when the heavy rain hit and they closed 101 North. We managed to make it there only driving through 1 foot of standing water on 26 just before the 101 merge. The road was clear to Cannon beach though. We had a heck of a time getting the lay of the land and finding out where everything was. We were so used to going to Lincoln City or Newport. It didn't' help that our room kitchen didn't have a frying pan or spatula. We hit the only restaurant in town that seemed to be open late and at a great meal. We liked it so much that Chris made reservations for her birthday dinner. We spent the 4 days watching movies, walking on the beach, checking out shops in town and generally relaxing. It was a good trip and we will probably come back that way again one of these years.

The story of our living room

When we first bought the house in 1989. The oil furnace died after the 2nd winter and blew black smoke throughout the house. Our home owners insurance covered it and we had the entire inside repainted professionally. The living room had an oil based painted trim. It was an off-white color. For at least the past 10 years Chris has wanted to repaint the living room. I have been very reluctant to do so since painting is one of my least favorite things to do. Chris gave me a VERY good incentive this time. She said I can buy a flat screen TV when we finish the living room. It is really our Christmas present to each other.

So Saturday morning we took everything out of the living room and taped off the windows and floors. Sunday morning we painted the ceiling and primered the trim. We then painted the walls. The next day Chris textured the walls with a rag. She had taken the entire week off so on Tuesday she painted the trim. We put the room back together on Wednesday and at the end of the day we took off for our trip to the coast. When we got back on Sunday we stopped in Video ONLY and bought a Toshiba 42" LCD 1080p TV! Now I just have to convert to HD DirectTV and buy a used X-Box 360 and we are all set!

25 years together

November 2nd was our 25th Wedding anniversary. Seems like only yesterday we just met. Time as gone by so quickly.

The Display is put away

We started early Saturday Morning and by the end of the day the display was all put away. We had a major incident that put a damper on an otherwise good day. More about that later. But for now the display is put away for another year and on to the holiday season.

Halloween day

The day started early for us at 4:30am when we got up to turn on the display for Joe V's arrival from Good Day Oregon FOX12. We were on the air from 5:50 to 8:50am. There is always a lot of waiting around for the few minute live broadcasts. We asked people to stop by in costume for the shot and several were able to come over. We had fun as always even though it was raining and cold most of the time.

We left everything setup for the evening. At 5pm we closed the streets and the police cadets showed up to block both ends. People started showing up and the dance team arrived to get ready. They setup a tent across the street to sell cocoa and cider. The dance team started performing at about 6:30 and did their routine as often as they could untile 9pm when they had to leave. We had 1000's of people stop by to trick-or-treat and see the display. We were able to shut the display off at about 11:30pm we put things away and went to bed to rest up for the next day's take down.

Our house featured on the TodayShow

Our halloween display was one of 3 in the nation chosen by the Today Show to be voted on for favoraite Halloween decorations.

Vote for us here

Davis Graveyard Party a big hit!

Our party this year turned out better than we could have hoped. The weather was perfect and we had more people attend than ever before. The costumes were fantastic. Everyone was very creative this year. We had fun singing along with Dr. Horrible and we enjoyed giving out all the prizes. We hope everyone had as much fun as we did this year and we look forward to next year.

To everyone who attend. We love you all!

What time is it?

We got up at 4am this morning to turn all the lights and effects on for KOIN 6 morning news which arrived at 4:30am to tape some live shots from the display on the 5-7am news.

Open House was a big success

We had a lot of people show up on a very nice Sunday afternoon to visit us at the graveyard. The Coffin Cruisers had 6 hearses parked along the street. The MHS Graveyard Dancers were in costume and makeup and performed their "Thriller" number all afternoon for an enthusiastic crowd.

First night of full effects

Our first night with full effects worked out very well. We had a few minor issues but they will be easily fixed for the next day. Had a LOT of people stop by all night. Chris and I both growned when we looked at our watch and it was only 9:30pm and we said another hour and a half? We must be getting old?

The graveyard dancers are back!

Yesterday 9 members of the Milwaukie High School Dance team came by the graveyard to try on costumes and do a quick rehearsal of their routine this year. They will be performing this Sunday during our open house and at our PCS fundraiser and on Halloween night.

Corpsed Skeletons

We had some extra help this weekend so we corpsed a few skeletons. One Mr. Thrifty tiny skeleton and one Budget Bart the medium sized skeleton.

We have pews!

Dad made some pews for us that we put together and detailed this past weekend. These are for the interior decor that will have a church theme this year.

Win a Mud Man!!!

We donated a Mud Man to Portland Center Stage's Promising Playwrights Program.

So you can win your very own Davis Graveyard Mud Man. This is a custom piece that was built specifically for this auction. He is over 7 feet tall and has a LED light in his hood that shines down on the tray in his hands that is perfect for holding Halloween candy for your trick-or-treaters!

He is currently in the theater lobby featured on the PCS website.

Help us support this great cause and contact the theater to buy tickets ($5 each) or email us and we will arrange for you to pick them up at the Graveyard.

Happy Halloween