Halloween fun

At our house, Halloween ranks second only to Christmas as the kids' favorite holiday. You get to dress up. You can to go out late at night. You get candy. What could be better? I should say, though, that Bear is over Halloween. He doesn't like dressing up, and he doesn't like the trick-or-treat thing -- which is why he's virtually absent from the photos below.

This year some people at church pulled together an All Saints Day party for the afternoon of Halloween. As you'd expect, people came dressed up as saints. I've never been a big fan of this idea, since everyone ends up looking pretty much alike. (If you're a saint, most likely you wore plain, simple clothes that made you virtually indistinguishable from all the other ordinary people or religious at the time. Where's the creativity, people?) The highlight for me -- and a lot of the adults -- was the folk dancing. We had a couple who knew how to do this sort of thing, and they walked everyone through all the steps before starting the music. That was FUN! Everyone participated, and everyone had a big smile on their face; for once, the kids were laughing, and so were all the adults. What a great family activity. I will post some video here later this week.

I am also inordinately proud of my Holy Spirit jack-o-lantern -- NOT carved from a pattern, thank you very much. See if you can spot it among the photos.

The girls carved their own jack-o-lanterns, with some minor assistance from Dad.

Did I mention that they wore their Mary/desert princess headdress???

The girls went to the saints party as Mary (yes, both of them).

And here they are, later in the evening, as a desert princess and a fairy.

Our jack-o-lanterns.

My Holy Spirit jack-o-lantern.

Bear was satisfied to hand out candy.

The neighbor kids visiting our house.

The look says it all. "This is the greatest night ever!" Scarfed probably half her bag before I took  it away.