"The best Halloween Ever!" part 5

So I know it is hard to believe that our Halloween could be that wonderful, but I felt that it really was. I feel sad for my Christian friends that refuse to partake becaue they fear it is evil. I did my searches and discovered that our celebrations all precede the churches day for All Saints and then the day for All Souls. The funny thing is that no one believes that our celebrations on Halloween are church related but they are. We are so caught up in being Christian that we forget some traditions began in our Catholic faith. Trick-or-Treating is an Irish thing based on collecting for the poor. That is the history of the day. There was a reason to dress like ghouls and goblins. It isn't celebrating them as much as it is acknowledging they are there and are trying to steal your souls. You are supposed to acknowledge evil and understand that it is true. How can we fight a battle when we don't even believe the enemy exists? Here is a little summery that I found after I had researched it for hours. Baptized holidays

Anyway we did celebrate and had a wonderful time. This year the kiddos wanted to go out in a theme but couldn't decide what to do. At the last minute they decided Ninja and purchased black shirts for the bunch. We were so late in picking that we couldn't find any Ninja toys so that just some black streamer paper and tied it around their heads. Later Pickle told me that it was his favorite costume. It was simple and fun and everyone liked that they were all dressed alike. I used to push that and gave up years ago now they do it on their own. Pickle also pointed out that Pooker will not be here next year if she goes away for college. He was so upset by this! I love how close they are.

Pooker lead the adventure and all the kiddos left. J and I were left home to defend the fort and pass out candy. We put the fire pit in the front and waited. It was slow at first and then around 8:00 the older kiddos started to venture out. Groups and groups of high school aged kiddos came by. That was our favorite part of the evening. At one point a huge group came by that included a hot dog, a ketchup bottle and a Michael Phelps . Now the Phelps costume was great. The young man had on black sweatpants and then just a bunch of medals. Simple, easy and very cute. I told him that he won the prize as our favorite. That is when he shared that he was going to wear his speedo but his mom sent him back upstairs to put on sweat pants. Thanks mom. So this group moved on and about an hour later they were back with some new members in the group. They went from about 10 teens to about 25 teens. We gave the new ones their candy and then the ketchup bottle walked up to J and asked. "Sir do you have a Sharpie I could borrow?"

Now if you know my husband he takes his loyalty to his company a bit too far. "Hell no, I don't have any of that crap in my house!!!!" The kid turned around to the group and as he is walking away yells, "Yep you were right it is the T house!" Isn't that too funny. The teens know that they could tell if it was us by just asking J about a "Sharpie." J's Bic reputation must be huge. Sad isn't it?

Our kiddos came back by to drop off the younger ones around 9:00. We set up a movie after teeth brushing and clothes changing. They sat and fell asleep down stairs while the older kiddos continued to walk around the neighborhood. They met up with friends and visited other friends. They arrived back home around 11:00. We all had a blast. They were safe and had fun together. We all then sat around the fir pit talking. The last trick-or-treater stopped by the house at 11:35 p.m. They jumped out of their car, ran up to house and asked if it was too late. We teased them for still trying that late in the evening. They pointed out that they had just gotten off work and there was only one other house that people were still outside. I was glad that we helped those teens be a part of Halloween even though they had to work. We talked as we let the fire die down and finally called it a night around 12:15. Great great fun! I am so thankful for family, friends, our neighborhood and the joy of having a large family. We celebrated all of that while still saying prayers for the deceased.