Five days of Halloween

Sometimes celebrations that technically fall on one day on the calendar are actually celebrated over multiple days. I know some people like to celebrate their birthday for an entire month, not just one day. Although the song is the "12 days of Christmas," it usually turns out to be three days of Christmas for our kids - one day (usually Christmas Eve) with our immediate family, one day (usually Christmas Day) with Paul's family, and one day (often December 26) with my family. Similarly, the kids usually go to a few Easter egg hunts over about an eight day period each year.

When I was a child Halloween was a one day event. We went trick or treating at just a few homes in our neighborhood and then helped my parents pass out candy to whomever came to our door. I had never even heard of "trunk or treat" events until maybe about ten years ago. Growing up I remember my friends at church and school were surprised that my parents allowed us to celebrate Halloween. My mom even decorated with windows of our

house with happy looking pumpkins, friendly looking scarecrows, and such. We were raised on the rather conservative side. Compared to the Amish, they were pretty "liberal," but compared to the average Christian we were on the far right. We were only allowed to wear pants if the activity we were doing necessitated it for modesty's sake- such as horse back riding or snow skiing. I remember being so torn as to whether I wanted to go to youth group activities at church because on the one hand I liked our youth pastor and his wife and doing the things they planned, but on the other hand I was mortified to be wearing a skirt when all the other girls were wearing pants (mostly they wore jeans, which I had never ever worn). Being a teenager is awkward enough on its own, but to be wearing something totally different from all the other girls from church made it much harder. Similarly, we were told that most music that included drums was "bad music." Drums were fine in a marching band, but if a Christian artist had a drummer - the music was bad. My friends (at the Christian

school) were baffled that my family considered contemporary Christian music to be "bad music" - not labeled that way because of a difference in taste but because it was actually deemed "wrong." Anyhow many times over the years people commented to me that they couldn't believe I was allowed to celebrate Halloween. They figured that it must be deemed taboo by my family. We never wore a costume of a ghost or a witch or the like. Speaking of which, I found a picture showing my dad using white shoe polish on my face for my clown costume. Make-up for costumes has come a long way, eh? I don't think people are using shoe polish these days, ha ha!

With my own children the first thing I took them to was a Trunk or Treat event at a church about 1 mile from our house. Then after a couple of years of just doing that, we started also taking them trick or treating on Halloween and to a party at the library. Last year it expanded to three Trunk or Treat events plus trick of treating and the library party (four total days). This year it has expanded to five days of Halloween! Yesterday afternoon we went to the library, a three day consignment sale (I got two Christmas gifts for the kids there and restrained myself from buying an adorable outfit for Oliver because it cost $15), and then to Weis. They had 10 stations around the grocery store where the kids could get a treat - ex. a cookie in the bakery, a cup of chocolate milk in the dairy section, a piece of cheese at the Deli, apple slices with caramel dip in the produce section, etc. At the end they were each given a small pumpkin to decorate and a stuffed animal (cow). Then we drove less than a mile to the McCann campus.

They had moved their trunk or treat event inside because of the rain. There were 13 "trunks" (each giving away candy), Dominos was giving away pizza, Perkins was giving away muffins and cookies, etc. After we ate our free dinner (and turned down the offer for free pumpkins), we went to to the face painting booth. Nadia asked for candy corn on one cheek, and Oliver had a pumpkin on one cheek. Ian passed because he was wearing a mask. Then they had many games for the kids to play - bowling with pumpkins, miniature golf, ring toss, etc. We spent an hour there altogether, and when we left there was a long line for entering the event. I was very glad we got there right when it started. The kids made sure to get a few Reese's PB cups for Paul. This evening they will be going through our church's trunk or treat and then passing out candy at the trunk their kids' choir is manning. Last year we waited in a ridiculous line for that event so I wasn't planning to return but #1 they won't have to wait since they will be going through before the event officially opens and #2 Paul will be there instead of me because I am going to a concert tonight with my friend, Cheri. Tomorrow I plan to take them to a party at the library and then a trunk or treat at the church where they do Upward basketball. Thankfully the weather is supposed to be much nicer today, Saturday, and Monday. It might be rainy on Sunday, but the other days it should be warmer and dryer than it was yesterday. We shall see what costumes the kids pick for the other four days of Halloween!