Halloween

This year was our first Halloween in the new house. For Greyson's sake, I learned up about all the Halloween traditions, and made sure we were ready with real, custom-designed and carved pumpkins, Costco-sized bags of candy, a big Halloween candy bowl from Goodwill, and a gorgeous hand-me-down lion costume, courtesy of my generous sister. We live a block from the infamous Harry Potter Halloween destination block in West Portal, so not only do we enjoy terrific trick-or-treating, we also enjoy the overflow of trick-or-treaters from that block.
















Right after Greyson had dinner, we got him in his costume, and together with Amy and Ollie, we headed out around the corner to go trick-or-treating. Our boy totally enjoyed walking around in his lion suit, swinging his pumpkin basket and just taking in the costumes. It was a unique experience for me. I think what struck me the most was seeing the doors of every house open, and realizing that for those few short hours, all defenses were down and with three magic words, "Trick or treat", everyone was a friend. In this country, lives are so delineated and privacy held so sacred. It was really refreshing to see people gather with open doors as a community, just enjoying the children and the joy Halloween brought to their faces.

After about an hour of walking the streets, we came back to our house, flung open our front door and prepared to receive some trick-or-treaters. We had friends come over, I made a pumpkin pie and cider, and we just hung out. Kids came in a steady stream for about two hours, petering out close to nine. Greyson absolutely loved the company. He'd peer out the door down our front steps to see who else was coming up for candy. He ran around with his shopping cart, singing and chatting up a storm with anyone who would talk to him. It was just a really nice time. I honestly didn't think I'd enjoy Halloween as much as I did. Next year, there will be more lights, more candy and more pumpkins.

In the last year, there have been times when the weight of our new mortgage has caused me to question our decision buy this house. Yet, I feel like something new and wonderful about our home is revealed to me every day, and Halloween was another example. God's been teaching me a lot about living "in" and not "through" time. Like the heroes of the Bible, we will make our mortgage payments by faith, one payment at a time. Here's a little recap of our little boy's three Halloweens. First he was our little carrot at three months, our boy wonder at 15 months, and now our little lion at 27 months. How fast time flies.