Halloween

So yesterday was Halloween. For weeks we brainstormed about how to "keep the Sabbath day holy" and not be killjoys. It's Halloween, for cryin' out loud! Ever since we got married, Sundays have been a day for family & friends, for service & church. It's a tradition we love. It's the one day of the week we know we wont have errands to run, music lessons & playdates to chauffeur kids to, homework to supervise . . . it's a day of rest. And although I'm sure we've raised a few eyebrows over the years by skipping birthday parties on Sundays, the kids just know that's what we do. It's been great family time. And come Monday, we're ready to face the world again. Well, usually, anyway.

In our church, we believe it's important to make the Sabbath a day of worship and service, but the specifics of how to do that is left up to each individual family to decide. So the debate began. How do we send a consistent message to our kids that we value the family & church focus of this one day a week while celebrating this awesome crazy glutonous pagan sugar-fest?? We most definitely love a good time. Enter the Halloween family dinner instead . . . We invited 4 families from church (one couldn't make it). And everyone was asked to bring some kind of Halloweenie food.

May I just say that we have the coolest friends? I wish I'd taken pictures. Alas, I'm the world's most image-forgetful person in the world. My children will have pics from their childhood only taken by observers of our family. So I have no pictures of the homemade icecream so rich it tasted almost like whipped cream served over the most amazing pumpkin bread I've ever had. I don't have any pictures of the cauldron filled with gooey nasty looking black bean, salsa, & cheese dip . . . mmmmm. The leftovers that got left behind in my fridge are calling me . . . I don't have still shots of the creepy mad-scientist-y pot bubbling with eery foaming rootbeer spilling fog all over my countertop (although I did get video of the kids playing with it . . . sorry about the poor light). Enormous kudos to the Kerrs for hunting down the dry ice! You guys rock!! And I don't have pics of the creepy disgusting-looking (sorry, RA) no-bake cookies that looked like cow patties with neon green eyes! But I do need the recipe. Who doesn't want a recipe for a quick chocolate fix with no baking?? Duh! Not to mention the amazing bbq chicken, really tasty rice with apples, etc. and the salad dressed up as a pumpkin, and the green slime kool-aid . . . .

I've decided this was by far my favorite Halloween yet. The kids had a blast giving out the candy to all their friends who came by. I never once answered the door. And we didn't have to endure the last-corner-of-the-block whining at the end of the trick-or-treating or the cold as it got dark. Sooooo grateful for those ones. I asked the kids Saturday night if they were sad that they weren't going to go trick-or-treating. Did they have enough candy? (We did have 3 parties scheduled on Saturday, one on Friday, as well as a pumpkin-carving get-together the Monday before, so they definitely got their fix.) They said they did! Enough candy?? Unbelievable. So no regrets about this one. Can't Halloween be on a Sunday every year?