I can't believe that November has arrived! We've had a great October, so I thought I'd chronicle some of the festivities via pictures. But first, I thought I'd write a few of my thoughts on Halloween...I was just talking to Dan about this controversial (in some Christian circles) holiday and have been mulling it over in my mind to line up my thoughts because I enjoy the season and even the day of Halloween. I love the thought of celebrating the harvest and I imagine that as our kids get older and I actually have a garden (hopefully next year) there will be even more to celebrate in this regard. A lot of work goes into raising a garden and then storing the harvest away for winter and I think it's awesome to set aside a day to celebrate what God has provided and all the work put into setting it aside. But as far as the actual day of Halloween goes, I really enjoy the community aspect of it. Though I didn't grow up in a typical neighborhood, we still went trick or treating and made our way down the road where we could quickly say hello and briefly catch up with neighbors that we otherwise seldom came in contact with. I love that for one night a year, you can wander from house to house and meet people you otherwise just aren't very likely to interact with. And let's face it, most people, Christians included, do a terrible job of being "neighborly" and building relationships with those who live closest to us. It's pretty sad. I also love that it's all about the kids (or it should be, anyway). There really is nothing in it for the adults, but to enjoy their children having a wonderful time. My mother-in-law, Kathy, has this massive dress-up bin (really it's almost a full room) full of dress-up clothes. This room is a favorite place of all the grandkids. They love to mix and match and come up with the craziest costume they can and then make their way downstairs to parade by the adults who ooh and ahh about their most recent selection. Halloween is a night where the kids have permission to take their favorite costume and show it off to the world. As far as the candy goes, of course it's not the greatest thing, but I figure one night of indulgence is fine. I like the idea of working out some sort of a trade with the candy (have them trade me their candy for say a new book, art supplies, or whatever might be most appealing to them), so maybe in the future I'll have that option for my kids.
Obviously the aspect I'm not fond of is the evil part (evil potentially being glorified). Next year I'll have to do a bit more research behind it all, but if I remember right, I think it does have some relation to the Christian "All Saints Day," which is November 1. With all the ghosts, goblins, vampires and witches that run around on Halloween, I'd like to hear how the current traditions came about. The nice thing is that we don't have to follow the traditions of the culture. I look forward to making our own traditions as a family...taking the good and fun cultural traditions (like pumpkin carving, fun costumes, etc) and hopefully adding a few of our own!
Okay, so first up, the pumpkin patch...We decided to head to the pumpkin farm of some of our friends from church. I was surprised to find how big of a production it was. I thought it would be a simple, head out into a muddy field and pick your pumpkin out, but they had the whole shebang with a hay maze, pumpkin sling shots, a hay ride, treats for sale, and other fun things. We had a great time there as a family. The rain poured down the entire day, except for the short time we were at the pumpkin patch when there were clear skies just above the farm. It was pretty amazing!
That night, we headed to a friends house to carve pumpkins and enjoy good company and a chili cook-off. Wedly said it best as we headed home that night..."Daddy, fun!" Thanks for the invite Nic and Mindy!
Finally, on Halloween night, we enjoyed our church's Harvest Festival. We did the cake walk and made our way to a couple of the booths, but once Wedly found the little bounce house, we stayed there the rest of the night. He was so stinkin' cute in his little giraffe costume, but he had to be HOT jumping around all night. This year, we borrowed costumes from my sister, since she had extra's lying around her house, but I imagine that in the years to come, we'll probably take on the task of making our own, either from thrift store finds or by other means. But for this year, the costumes we had for the boys were awesome! Wedly enjoyed every minute in his giraffe costume.
Trying on costumes with Auntie Heidi, Ben, Sam and Levi
The cutest little giraffe around!
A little help from daddy while miniature golfing.
Cake walk
