Monday, October 31, 2011

Thoughts on Halloween

OK call me the scrooge of October. I don’t scrounge for the latest and cutest costume. The exterior of my home does not resemble a graveyard. I did not pick up our pumpkins until today, Halloween. Well, that I really should have done weeks ago, but I just didn’t. Somehow, despite all that, I truly do not feel that my kids feel deprived.

We did make a special dinner, calzones. Our new bread maker worked its magic this afternoon preparing two batches of dough, and we worked together to make our meal which turned out delicious, I must say.

Our small pumpkins look adorable (all seven of them) sitting on the family room mantle. My little one had a blast designing her happy faced, crooked smile pumpkin and helping her daddy to cut it out. My little man went at it by himself and was proud of the results. Princess went to work with a sharpie and made the most adorable faces for our babies’ pumpkins as well as her own. I am not so sure where Angel was hiding. During all this, my sweetie found “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” on Hulu. You know, the 1966 classic.

Throughout the evening, we entertained goblins and ghosts, pirates and princesses at the front door. Some were a tad scary, so scary that my babies would not cross the line into the hallway. At the sight of one monster, my little girl jumped on the table into Princess’s arms. It took awhile to convince them that the scary monsters had gone away.

We enjoy sharing candy with kids from the neighborhood. We just don’t take the so called holiday outside our home. It isn’t for any Biblical conviction. Our family has made a decision to not take part wholly in what our culture is building to be a holiday on par with Christmas. We do not make a big deal of it with our kids. The fact that we didn’t get our candy until yesterday and our pumpkins until today says we really do not put a high priority on Halloween.

What we do like to do is spend time together with our kids. I love to be creative with them. I enjoy their smiles, their pride in their work, and their attitude of sharing with others. It is not that our kids do not like to dress up. On the contrary. Princess had our little girl in a tutu and our little boy in a borrowed soccer uniform complete with shin guards and over-sized cleats. It did not matter to him that he had to keep pulling up his too big shorts. Our little baby sported a pumpkin bib as well. Not that he really cared. He spent most of the time asleep. My little one enjoyed floating around in her own world dressed as a lady bug. My little man outdid them all. He said he wanted to dress up for Halloween so he donned dress pants, a belt, a dress shirt with tie, and snazzy new dress shoes. Way to go!

The porch light is off. The candy bucket is sufficiently filled to satisfy our family’s sweet tooth for awhile. The babies are in bed hopefully dreaming sweet dreams, not ones with scary monsters.

I kind of like enjoying today with my kids without getting too overwhelmed with what culture dictates as Halloween.

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