If you know me at all, you know that I don't like Halloween for the yucky, gross, bloody, gorey, icky stuff. I don't do that at all. We don't do skulls & bloody eyeballs & all that sort of stuff at my house. My kids *know* not to ask for blood & yuck sort of costumes. It ain't gonna happen. We have fun dressing up as silly or funny things. Or cartoon characters. We enjoy going to church carnivals & getting loaded up on candy. It's FUN. We don't even tiptoe near the creepy stuff. At my church when I was little, we had an annual "Fall Fest" on Halloween night & for a while, there was even a rule that you had to dress up as your favorite Bible character. That was easy...robes & sheets or scarfs completed the costume for several years there. Looking back, I have to giggle because I don't think my mom ever bought us costumes. We created them out of things we had at home. My great-grandmother died when I was in 2nd grade & we brought home a huge box of costume jewelry from her house. For the next few years, I wore a bunch of her (gaudy) jewelry & heavy make up & was a gypsy. I cut holes in a few white sheets & was a ghost a few years. I painted on cat whiskers with my mom's eyeliner & was a cat several years. We never went "all out". In high school, I had a Tshirt that I wore year after year. The front said "This is my Halloween costume." On the back, it had a whole list of possible things & it said "I am a........." and then you checked a box under it. As a teen, my friends & I would trick or treat down the street that ran adjacent to the church property where our families were attending the church carnival. We'd ring the doorbells & stick out our funny little plastic pumpkin buckets to the odd looks of people wondering why 4 or 5 teens who were not in costumes were at their door begging for candy. Hey, it worked! :)
This year, my youngest has come up with a crazy costume that won't take lots of work. She's going to be a (teen) babysitter. It cracked me up watching her get all giggly while we were in Walmart the other day. We bought some bright pink & green hair color spray stuff. We're going to paint her fingernails black & tape babydolls all over her clothes. I know...silly. She's going to look kinda punk-ish, but hey, it's cheap & it'll work just fine. And anyone who knows my sweet baby girl knows that she is anything but "punk"! That's why it's so funny. Samuel's going to be a ninja & Savannah is going to re-use last year's "slumber party girl" costume--her PJs & robe. Works for me!
At my school, we have pizza & pajama parties for Halloween. No one gets their feelings hurt because they can't wear their costume and everyone gets to do something fun.
Soon after Halloween, my VERY FAVORITE holiday is upon us. Thanksgiving!!! It's my favorite holiday because no one has messed it up. It's not all commercialized & screwed up by anything else that is wrongly attached to the holiday. I like that no one really makes money off of the holiday (other than maybe the turkey people). It's a day about being thankful! I love that!! Family time, yummy foods, sitting around & talking, beautiful Texas Fall weather. Oh, I love it!
And then of course, there's Christmas. Seriously, it'll be here before ya know it. In fact, according to this website, there are only 88 days til Christmas! Larry is dreading it already. He always does. He's got a serious ba-humbug thing about Christmas due to the way it's so commercialized. Every year, he LOVES the things that we do at our house, the way the focus is on JESUS & not the presents & money that must be spent. But he still sees so much of the world getting all caught up in the commercial stuff, so he hates the whole Christmas season. I keep trying to tell him that it doesn't have to be about all of the stuff he hates. He can make it miserable or not...it's up to him to focus on the good stuff he likes. Oh well, I'll keep trying.
Tonight, we arrived a little early for our LIFE group meeting. Since the childcare folks weren't ready for the kids yet, we made a little stop at the church library. I'm so glad we did! I grabbed 3 books. Larry got 2 audiobooks. We got 1 movie for the family to watch, "Flywheel". And Sarah got a book. Later on, before we left, Savannah went back & got a book too! I can't wait to get started on one particular book. It's this little bestseller that all my friends have been raving about for months now. Maybe you've heard about it.
And on a totally unrelated front--2 things for you to add to your prayer list. (See, I told ya this was a really random post!)
Early last week, Larry's aunt called to ask him to do a funeral for her mother in law. He agreed & made the trip to Lafayette, LA to perform the service. He loved the time with his mom's family that we don't see nearly often enough. Please keep that family in your prayers as they begin to heal & move forward without their mom, grandma, mother in law.
Tonight, Larry's mother called him, very upset. Her brother, Jimmy Glenn ("Uncle Jim") has had cancer for a couple of years. I think it's stomach cancer, but I might be wrong on that. I've only met Jim 2-3 times in the 17 years I've known Larry, so we're not really close to him. Anyway, he's gone back & forth for a while now on his health. But tonight, my mother in law's call was pretty sad. Jim's on a ventilator & is not expected to make it. It appears that the cancer is winning. Her sister, the same one whose mother in law died this past week, is coming to pick her up in the morning & drive her to the town where Jim is in the hospital. Nikki (my mother in law) is devastated. This is her older brother. Please keep Nikki & her siblings in your prayers as it appears that they're losing Jim.
Time for me to say goodnight & hit the shower. Sleep well, my friends!
3 comments:
I read The Shack and really enjoyed it it will surely make you think. Praying for the prayer request.
For the past 2 years, we sat out on our driveway and just handed out candy to all the tons of kids...2 years ago, I was prego and we had the dogs in costumes out there with us. Last year, of course, we had Brooklyn all dressed up. This year, Dave has to work. Boo. :(
LOVE The Shack!!
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