Halloween has never been my favorite holiday. I enjoyed it fine, but I didn't anxiously await its coming like Christmas. So when designing the holiday schedule for the kids spending time with both sets of parents, we chose to reduce changes in the routine and just left Halloween in the regular routine rather than add exchanges and such.
It turns out, though, that because of how the calendar falls, it was our last trick-or-treat night with the girls until they are teens. I don't know if they'll still want to go then. My family said that if I was too old to go with Dad, then we were too old to go at all (with the other teen agers). I told the girls about that. They asked why. I told them about some of the stuff teenagers are known to do on Halloween. They thought that such pranks were stupid. I sure hope that sticks!
So, we made the most of it. We took pictures and video. We set it up to go trick-or-treating with a friend of each girl. We started with the younger daughter's friend while it was still light. Then we stopped by our fairy godmother's house, my parent's house (for a picture and 2 liter bottles of root beer), my sister-in-law's place. Last, we went with the older daughter's friend and her family. This was close enough to our house that my husband went to get the dog. The girls dressed up the dog, since the four of us were all decked out. One girl was a "princess cowgirl thingy" and the other was a wizard who didn't even need a wand. I was Sleeping Beauty and my husband was my prince. We separately found our costumes at a thrift store and without coordinating, ended up with matching princess bodice and prince suit complete with sequins. The girls were so generous with their candy! I sure wasn't as a kid.
I found a new appreciation for the glories of Halloween. We'll probably be able to take hay rides together in the future years, but I'll only be able to send angels on the trick-or-treat nights when they go with their mother.
On the other hand, it will be our first Thanksgiving as a family, being able to have the whole day together, the whole weekend enjoying relatives, pigging out, cuddling, and LAUGHING. Oh how grateful I am!
Whether you are a parent or not, I hope what I share here helps you find hope and tools that help us feel whole... Please pass this blog on to anyone you know that has experienced sadness, disappointment, trauma, abandonment, or anger in their past. What am I talking about: The more I get to parent, the more I realize how important it is for me to heal my own emotional baggage, so I can be an emotionally healthy example as we guide the next generation to be all that they can be.
Me too, me too! Grateful that is. Sad that I missed their last Halloween (as little kids) but happy they had a good one. Maybe when they are older, we can do a Halloween party at our house for their friends like we used to do for their dad and sibs and friends. It's best *not* to do that on Halloween night so it'd be perfect.
ReplyDeleteMary Suze aka grandma