Halloween Traditions

Happy Halloween Everyone! Last night our town celebrated halloween, so we're all finished here. The fam had a great time and I realized we've sort of started our own little Halloween traditions.

Now, to begin with, I am NOT a halloween person. I don't think I've ever enjoyed the so-called "holiday". I don't enjoy the ghosts, witches and other scary things that halloween abounds with. Not to say that some of that doesn't infiltrate our own celebration. We still watch movies and read books that talk about ghosts and witches--for example: Pooh's Heffalump Halloween and one of our favorite books "I Like Pumpkins" by Jerry Smath. But I don't like to center our thoughts around those types of things.

I would much rather use the day as a celebration of fall or even as just a silly, fun time. Which leads me to our Halloween Traditions. Our first halloween with Reagan was before she was even a year old and we handed out candy and ooohed and awwwed over all the costumes and watched (of course) It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

The next year Reagan was old enough to do a little trick or treating herself and we took her to the downtown trick or treating event, where she gathered a few pieces of candy and then we had dinner at a downtown diner, sitting at a table overlooking the street, watching all the kids pass by in their costumes. Then, we went home, passed out candy and watched...yep....It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! So this year, what did we do? We did a little of the downtown trick or treating, had dinner at that same diner, at the same table and came home to pass out candy and watch ....well, you know what we watched!

I have to say these are the three best halloweens I've ever had in my life. (Closely followed by that first year in Texas, where my brother and I traipsed through snow to collect FULL SIZE candy bars from all the neighbors!)

I love the fact that we're having such a great time laughing and making other people smile by handing out candy to crazy kids dressed in all manner of costumes. I love the fact that we can all sit down and watch a classic movie together and eat junk food and just enjoy some family time. Family time is hard to come by in this crazy world we live in and if halloween gives us an excuse to enjoy each other, I just might bump it up a couple of notches to a favorite holiday spot.

Enjoy the candy, but especially enjoy each other. Happy Fall Y'all!