Long Hollow

It's Halloween weekend, and you won't find a single witch, ghost, goblin, or scarecrow on the premises…there's not even a pumpkin on my porch, much less a jack-o-lantern.

No, I'm not against Halloween. I love it! It's always been one of my favorite holidays! (And I do not believe that means I'm a bad Christian.)

I hated when they switched the school Halloween Carnival to the generic "Fall Festival"…hated when the traditional Halloween parade through the elementary school, while "The Monster Mash" streamed through the loudspeakers, was replaced with a book character parade in November – not that I have anything against book characters, of course (except when they told the kids who they had to dress up as!) but why couldn't they do both?

I wished, more than anything, that my kids could experience Halloween the way I did as a kid (for a trip down that memory lane, take a few minutes to read blogger Suldog's Halloween rant, "Why, When I Was Your Age…" It really took me back, let me tell you!)

Even when I was mostly grown up, but before I had kids, I carved jack-o-lanterns and put up decorations. Once the kids came along, I had a blast rounding up costumes, whatever they wanted to be. We scoured garage sales and resale shops all year for pieces. 

Tommy quickly went from pirates and ninjas to…whatever you call something in a black hood with a creepy face…and pretty much repeated it every year, with slight variations in make-up and weapons.

I couldn't sew very well, but I was creative and quick with a hot glue gun…my pièce de résistance was this Snow Leopard costume Daniel requested (nose and ears are made from a recycled nebulizer mask and felt.)

TG added a tutu a few years later and voilà! she was a Ballerina Snow Leopard! That should have won some Creativity Award, don't you think?

I even ventured near the sewing machine one year and made capes (gray for Gandalf and red for Little Red Riding Hood…I know I have a picture of her somewhere, but I couldn't find it!)

But now…

    1) the kids are out of the house, gathering their own costumes…

    2) We live a mile down a dirt road – no trick-or-treaters in their right candy-hungry mind will be venturing out this far. And those who live in the area will be carpooled to a more densely populated neighborhood (I know from experience!)

    3) Is it really Halloween already? Without school programs on the calendar, and artwork to go on the fridge, the days – the holidays – just zoom up and blur together.

Can you tell I'm wallowing in Halloweens past, mourning the passing of those frantic days? Without the kids here, there just seems to be no point in all the fuss.

I'm not sure why, because I enjoyed it before I had kids…maybe having kids during holidays is like going from plain vanilla ice cream to a banana split with the works. Plain vanilla tasted divine until you added all the toppings. Now that the kids are gone, decorating without them here is like trying to go back to plain vanilla. Why even waste the calories if you can't have the hot fudge, whipped cream and cherry on top, too?

Sigh.

Also…please keep my dad in your prayers today. He flunked his stress test last week, which indicated a blockage, so now he gets to undergo a heart catheter procedure this morning. Thank you! And hallelujah for modern medicine! 

This is an old photo, obviously, but one of my favorites of us together.