Halloween

Children have transformed my perspective of Halloween. Answering the door for tricker treaters really drives me crazy. I swear I'm my father's daughter in the fact that I'd rather turn all the lights off and hide in the house, not answering the door. I think some of it has to do with the fact that sometimes I'm anti-social and like to be alone or with the fact that I'm self conscience so I hate answering the door and passing out candy, talking to children and parents that I don't know. I'm not sure what it is, but Halloween definitely is a holiday that I wouldn't mind skipping.

Jon, on the other hand absolutely LOVES Halloween. If I'm correct, it's his favorite holiday of the year. He must REALLY love it if he ranks Halloween before Christmas. The first year we were married, Jon put a stereo outside playing spooky music, put a black light in the porch light, he put on a creepy mast, bib overalls and answered the door very slowly and made eery sounds. Scary to the point that he made multiple children cry that night. I tried hard to stay out of the limelight and sat in the hall upstairs out of sight watching it all happen and rolling my eyes every time there was a knock at the door. I finally had to yell at Jon and tell him that when kids got scared and cried or would back away from the door, he needed to take the mask off and tell them to come get candy. I was extremely annoyed, but didn't mind my place in the dark hall, watching.

Halloween registers so differently on my holiday scale now that we have children. It has become this magical day for children, which in turn makes it such a magical night for me as well. I love the excitement that fills Noah when we show him his costume. Noah trembles with joy when we say he gets to go to a party dressed up. He's figured out that if you go to each house and say "trick or treat" they give you candy and he gets so excited about that. Last year, Noah was two, and he didn't quite understand until about the 5th house. After that, he had a ton of fun running from house to house. This year, he just enjoyed every minute he could spend with this cousins, Sydney and Charlie, and was so thrilled to have people put candy in his little bag. Nothing made my heart smile more than when Noah would go to leave someone's porch and he'd turn around and say "thank you" in his little three year old voice. At about every third house, Noah would coming running back to me and say, "look mommy, candy" and he'd stop where he was on the grass or sidewalk, rummage through his bag until he could find me the piece of candy that particular house had given him.

Halloween has turned into one of my favorite holidays now because of the sweet spirits of my children. I get to stand back on the sidewalk and watch his face light up at every single house and watch him learn about people, traditions and spend time with his cousins. It doesn't get any better than that!