Small Town Halloween

 This year's Halloween was a joyful and simple one.  There was no race between the sewing machine and time because I declared early that I was not making costumes.  Charles got to wear the skeleton suit that was painted for Peter's first Halloween 8 years ago.  Just like Peter he is a skinny baby so the suit suits him.

William was some sort of a Jedi guy, I made an exception to sewing this one because of his enthusism.  The hooded jacket was made out of a curtain picked up at the thrift store and I was so impressed that in his desire to finish it up he actually sewed half of it himself!  I needed to admit to William that I threw away all the light sabers in a moment of mom rage after someone got a black eye a few years ago.  He was disappointed but made due with a swimming noodle, pvc pipe and duct tape. 

  

Maryanna pulled together a cowgirl ensemble.  By Halloween night however it was completely soiled so she then pulled out the old Sacajawea costume.

Clara got this witch costume from a friend and tried really hard to be a scary, that was almost impossible because she is too sweet.

We found this great dinosaur costume at thrift store for Henry and he liked it enough to wear it around for the day. He said his penguin costume was warmer though so switched into it for the night of Halloween.

Peter is a football guy almost everyday so his costume was no surprise to me.  What did surprise me was his quick change before heading out to the neighbors, he went back to the army costume because he knew our Veteran neighbors would appreciate it, and they did.

James was a mad scientist and used a piece of coal from the wood stove to cover his face and goggles.  Everyone thought that was a good idea and have been decorating their faces daily ever since.

George was a chubby robot and just like Henry has been wearing it daily as outwear.

I threw together a witch costume and even painted my face with a green face crayon.  

 There is so much to love and not love about Halloween.  Each year as we create a space in our home for celebrating I am faced with the dilemma of keeping our festivities in line with our values.  What I value are experiences that nurture both body and soul and with regard to Halloween it  has been our experience that candy (even a little) = unhappy and soon to be sick children, and similarly bringing attention to the creepiness of Halloween = weeks of nightmares.  For this reason we opted out of our church's trunk or treating activity and even decided ahead of time that we would not be trick or treating the night of Halloween.  Some may call me a kill joy for this decision and to them I say we obviously do not share the same definition of joy.

Keeping on the joyful side of Halloween I was thrilled to hear of the tradition of a parade our small town hosts the Saturday before Halloween.  

There were big tractors and floats

The local high school marching band performed in costumes

And it was small enough that had I not been wearing a long witch dress with big black heels I would have march along with them pulling a wagon of smiling dressed up children, next year.

Later that evening our neighbors hosted a neighborhood cook out complete with a huge bonfire and Christmas lights strung among the trees.  We engaged in warm conversation and sat close to the fire while as we ate savory chili under the stars.

Halloween morning I was nervous the kids would turn on me for the decision not to go trick or treating.  It never came up, in fact, it made no difference to them, they were buzzing around begging to carve pumpkins and begging to lick the batter off the spoon from the pumpkin muffins.

We carved 12 pumpkins in total and during the gutting Peter was careful to save seeds from the best of them while the rest were prepared for roasting.  While they were engaged in carving I quickly went to the itunes store and put together a fun Halloween mix and for over 3 hours they carved they jammed to Purple People Eater, Ghostbusters, Monster Mash, and Chicken Monkey Duck.

Among the pumpkins there was a winged helmet, the Star Wars logo, Boba Fett, Frankenstien (which Peter named Matt McGloin), a ghost, Hello Kitty, several different faces and a few simply bored with holes.

Thinking of all our kind neighbors we thought it might still be fun to dress up and visit them with our own offerings of pumpkin seeds and muffins, Maryanna then quickly went to work on hand drawn cards.  The kids did pick out 3 pieces of candy and bag of popcorn from the visits but the source of their joy was seeing our neighbors and their excitement over the costumes,muffins and Halloween cards. 

Though the temperatures were low, this was a warm and memorable Halloween for our family.  We have successfully broken mainstream tradition and carved out a new way to celebrate this holiday in a joyful way.