Last Updated on August 8, 2024 by Leslie Stroud <!– %AUTHOR_NAME% –>
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Who else loves Halloween? Does anyone else look forward to Halloween as much as Christmas (ok, maybe even a bit more)?
Probably just me.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas. I try to soak it up as much as I can. Actually, I have a zillion little traditions I’m trying to do each year.
And that is probably part of the problem.
Halloween is my holiday where everything fun I do is bonus mom-points, not filling my mental to-do list to make the holiday magical. Just too much pressure on Christmas!
I do try to have some traditions for Halloween. They mostly include:
- Decorating the house. I add decorations every year and someday I’ll have that epic house that both scares and welcomes all children to my candy-lair
- Themed food. I can’t handle the super creepy, bloody stuff, but I love the fun mummy dogs, vampire smiles, pumpkin veggie trays, etc.
- Class parties at school with my in full witch costume and doing a “Witches Brew”. I’ve had a teacher turn me down on this. but I’ve done it every year in at least one class. I’ve been a pregnant witch a couple times!
- Dinner with friends or family
- Hopefully a spooky movie to end the night
So, this year is obviously a little different. My list has to be a lot shorter… no house… no friends… no school.
This put me in a little funk today, not going to lie. I had a hard time getting out of bed, a hard time getting out of the house, and then I scrambled at the end to try to throw a dinner together at the end (and after a power nap).
My take away from Hawaiian Halloween: I thought it might be a dud here. There were really no decorations and we hadn’t seen any children yet. I was a little worried and so were the kids.
We were dead wrong!
Magically, in the dark, the neighborhood became a huge gathering place. Kids and parents were flowing around the streets, blowups and decorations came out, and pretty much everyone that wanted to hand out candy set up outside their house at a table. This made it super fun! No wondering if the house wants to hand out candy and you get to stop and chat!
It did make me a little lonely- I can’t tell if I’m making it up or if it’s really that I feel outside of the loop here. Like we aren’t quite welcome by the locals. We are pretty obviously tourists, but I want to tell them I really WANT to get to know them and how they live. I want to be with them and immerse in them. I’m not just here to damage their island and be annoying. I can’t say those things, of course.
The kids had a fabulous time and we got all we wanted out of trick-or-treating. My rule is you eat as much as you want on Halloween night and after that mom rations (and soon throws away) the rest of your candy. I was proud of Lincoln- he plowed through a bunch and then threw the rest away. Way to go, bud!
We also have been reading every night together right as they get in bed. I’ve been reading them Roald Dahl. We started with Matilda and watched the movie, which they LOVED. It has become a pretty solid part of bedtime and I love it. It’s one of my favorite times of the day. We just finished reading Witches, which is such a fun book. Tonight, we watched the movie. It was scary, creepy, and very enjoyable.
