I look forward to Thanksgiving Dinner every year.
I anticipate Christmas as much as a child.
But I've never been a huge fan of Halloween.
Until I became a mom.
I LOVE dressing my children up in costumes. It's always a contest to find an even better disguise then the year before. I will forever remember the Prince as a 2 year old dressed up as a Deer. I also LOVE seeing my children's excited little faces run house to house and fill those bags up with goodies, as we make our way down the tree-lined streets of our neighborhood.
We have a few traditions that I am proud we do every year.
* I love to watch the movie Hocus Pocus. This year I was surprised to realize how many other people love that movie too!
* We like to paint our pumpkins, rather than carve them. I don't know how the heck my friend did this to some pumpkins, but she is a much better "knife artist" than I will ever be!
I would have just tried the traditional jack-o-lantern face, but my results would not have been the same. I can't cut on a pumpkin to save my life.
So instead, the kids and I have been painting pumpkins the last couple of years. They went from "How much paint can we use up?" to stripes of colors to actual scenes painted on. This year the Princess has little pumpkins sitting on green grass, under a dark blue sky, with yellow stars, and flying black bats. So fun to watch their paintings mature as they do each year.
Another tradition we have is visiting our special people. We don't spend too much time out in the neighborhood, so that we still have plenty of time to visit the people we love. As an elementary school teacher, I also try to make the day as fun and memorable as my teachers always did. This may or may not include some spooky music, Halloween dance moves, and a little light flickering! I want them to remember all these reading and math skills we work on, but I also want them to look back on these years and remember how much fun it was being a kid excited on Halloween!
It blows my mind to think about how many people spend money on candy (even the "cheap" candy costs a ton!) for people they do not even know. It is the most gracious, and yet often unappreciated thing, I see.
So as you trick or treat tomorrow night, be sure and thank the men and women helping to make your Halloween so memorable. And if you're one of those sweet people I'm talking about, enjoy the darling little trick-or-treaters that come see you. You are making a positive difference in their lives, even if it is just for one night.
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