Inspired by both my Hungarian parents and a terribly superstitious grandmother, my twin brother and I grew up in a house filled with lucky charms, herbal remedies and wonderfully scary stories of the old country.

I can still remember the times we'd spend downstairs - we shared a house and lived in a small apartment above my grandmother - curled up in her lap and listening to spirits lament the living, feeling as if they were floating just above our heads in the air filled with static electricty.

Or, at least that's what the little hairs on the back of my neck and arms were telling me.

When I think of all those nights (and days) spent running passed the cellar door and throwing salt over our shoulders, wondering whether or not all her stories of long lost relatives were true, I think these are probably the reasons why I am so interested in my family's genealogy and still remember to light candles on All Saints Day.

My husband, not so much.

When it comes to honoring the spirits of the past, daddy is a skeptic - big time! - my children, however, have very vivid imaginations and, yes, they get it from their mother.

"I know what that's called...it's a grave yard!"

We were driving home from my son's baseball game and my 5-year-old daughter's voice scared me half to death!

"Actually, it's a cemetery and nobody wants to think about graves in their yards!"

My son, too.
 

"Well, we buried Stripers there."

Yes, we buried our beloved family cat in a place of honor - between some poppies and a patch of daisies growing just underneath his favorite window in the house -  with full colors of a respectable funeral, in our backyard.

"But, our house isn't scary."

Really?

"Nope, your room isn't, but mine is!"

My son is going through a really tough time at night and - since, there's just too many monsters and ghosts hanging out in his room - he's been sleeping with his sisters for the last couple of nights.

"Oh, you're just being afraidy-cat and I really don't think there are any such things, as ghosts!"

The girls, too.

"Yeah, but mommy does and maybe Little Man should sleep with Daddy!"

Yes - I do believe in ghosts - but, I definitely think that it's the living that I should be worried about, tonight!