Sigh. Halloween. I’m not going to lie folks, I have struggled with this “holiday” for quite awhile.
I’ve never really let my kids “trick or treat.” I wasn’t trying to deprive them of candy or anything…..it’s just that, on principle I think the idea of knocking on a door and saying a phrase that is thought of as cute but really means, “You give me something or I’ll….” is just….. I don’t know where to start.
I guess I could have sent my kids around the neighborhood saying, “Candy, please?”
Secondly, I get it. Decorating with all the dark and scary things can be fun and exciting. But you know…..the last four years have had some really dark and scary things in them, and none of them would I ever make decorations for and put outside my house. I don’t think life and death is something to play around with. We walked close enough to the death of our own child, and close enough to so many friends who lost their children, that it will never be fun to me to put a fake tombstone in my yard.
There are enough real things that are hard and scary in this life, and I don’t feel the need to compound that by making light of any of them.
HOWEVER. I acknowledge that I sometimes thing really hard about things. Sometimes I overthink things. And I don’t fault anyone who just loves the scary decorations and loves dressing up. I don’t have any problem with dressing up, and even though we are tight with sugar, I don’t want to be so strict with it that they never have any fun.
And I also acknowledge that there are plenty of places that offer Fall Festivals, etc that try to offer a place of fun without most of the scary.
But this year, I had spent seven straight days at the hospital and I knew that we needed some special time just as a family. I think the kids just needed something fun and special to look forward to that WASN’T dark and scary–because the week prior had been quite a bit of that. AND. I wanted them to have the fun of costumes and the fun of candy. So we had the Hester Costume and Candy Party!❤️. It was so much fun and I truly hope it becomes our tradition. It took some effort and planning on the end of a crazy week. But it was worth it.💕
We had a lovely dinner together of kale chicken salad and butternut squash ravioli:
And “candy corn” fruit cups:
We made apple “nachos”:
We encouraged each other and played telephone and Catch Phrase!
Ben and I had fun as doctor and nurse:
We had the best firefighter (Elijah was not really up for pictures):
The most sparkly:
The most excited to get into character:
The best muscles:
Most time and effort put into a homemade costume:
The best use of technology (Sherlock Holmes had a magnifying glass, a small pocket watch, and a pipe that lit up):
And the most helpful (this modern day Cinderella helped many of her siblings with their costumes and did a beautiful job on her own, as well as Evelyn’s hair.):
I love them all so much. It was just what our family needed this year to just have some fun together, to enjoy being creative and to have some fun treats.
Here are the kids with their bags of candy:
Maybe one year we will celebrate differently, but for now, and with a life that just doesn’t seem to slow down….an evening together was just what we needed.❤️
We truly hope that however you celebrated, you had fun with your family too.❤️❤️❤️❤️
The Need for Hope 