So, we have never been trick or treating before. Well, I mean since we've had kids. Our kids have never been trick or treating before. Max went every year when he was little and his parents made a big deal about the holiday and did stuff to scare the neighborhood kids. However, I went 2 times when I was young plus to a few fall festivals that we could dress up for, but you had to be something on Noah's ark or someone in the Bible. But we lived in the country so there wasn't option of walking from house to house unless you wanted to drive from house to house. We went with my mom's best friend's daughters to their neighborhood. And we never had jack-o-lanterns. Instead, my dad (being from El Paso), lit luminaries down the side walk, but my mom always that was a dangerous fire hazard. The Christian school my brother and I went to always sent out a long letter educating our parents about the true meanings of Halloween. That was enough for us to not be allowed to enjoy it and I see why. I mean my parents or my mom really, didn't want us to have anything to do with worshipping Satan or dressing up like lost souls roaming the earth for food. I get it and I didn't want to have my kids involved in that whole idea either so Max and I were in agreement that we would let the kids dress up so we could get cute pictures of them :) and hand out candy to those who did want to celebrate Satan's holiday. But then our Life Group leaders invited us to go trick or treating with them this year in their Castle Hills neighborhood. Their youngest daughter and Kellyn are great friends so we said yes. Plus Kellyn had been asking what the other kids were talking about at her preschool about going out at night and getting candy at people's doors. She obviously knew we did it at the Vet Clinic and at Truck or Treat, but she didn't know there was another opportunity for it. My concern was that they kids would see scary decorations and get scared and have nightmares which is just what Satan wants. But I figured that our Life Groups leaders would not be exposing their children to Satan rituals and worship and we weren't either so maybe now Halloween is just a fun time to for kids to be silly and get candy, kind of like Valentine's Day. I've been calling it Dress Up Day and Good Manners Day and telling the kids that Halloween is the day everyone gets to play dress up and get candy and practice our good manners by saying please, thank you and excuse me. :) So while I am still torn over this "holiday" I've decided to let it go and let them be kids and give them some fun memories of their childhood. I don't want to be so legalistic about it that my children can't enjoy some innocent fun with their friends. I mean Max tells these fun, silly stories about what his parents did for Halloween when he was kid and he turned out ok. :) I don't have those kind of stories and now I feel like I sound judgmental. I think Americanized version of Halloween is more about fun, food and fellowship than it is about ghosts, demons and Satan.
So we gave it a try.
We went to our next door neighbors house first before getting in the car to meet up with friends in Castle Hills.
Rhett, Kellyn and Reagan before we began.
So cute how Kellyn is holding Rhett's hand.
My kids had no idea what to do, but they figured it out very quickly!
After every house Kellyn would run back to me and say, "I said Thank You" with a big smile. She was so proud of herself for showing gratitude on Good Manners Day :)
The Queen of Hearts and the White Rabbit trying to catch up with Alice and the Water Fairy.
Half way through we forced to girls to slow down and wait to get a quick picture.
Our crew. Honestly, if Drew and Mandy had not invited us we would not have gone trick or treating again this year and missed out all the fun again.
The men.
So cute how Rhett was trying to catch up with the Mad Hatter. We couldn't believe that Rhett let Drew hold him. We went to so many houses. I completely lost count. It was so crowded on the sidewalks. You would see vans pull up tons of kids and parents get out. Many people were obviously bussed in from around the Carrollton area to trick or treat for the good candy in Castle Hills.
Rhett and Mommy near the end.
Ok so, I am so glad we did it. It really was a great time to talk and catch up and meet new people and run into friends along the way. Someone once told me recently that the worst things that happened to society as a whole were the inventions of electricity, the television, video games and now the internet. He said that people used to sit on their front porch and talk to their neighbors because their was nothing to do in their house. Now people feel like they are too busy to have a leisurely face to face conversation with neighbors and they feel like they are caught up on friendships over facebook. He said you might know the neighbors that live directly next door to you, but thats it. Most people are total strangers with people on their block. Halloween was a fun night to get out and fellowship, get to know one another. I don't think that is what Satan intended, but once again us Christians have foiled his plans and continue to bring glory to God and allow Christ's light shine through even on the darkest of nights. I now think that Halloween is more about the innocents of childhood rather than the pagan rituals of the Celtic people.
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