Halloween

Once upon a time I used to like Halloween (most likely because it involved lots of sugar, which I am a big fan addict of).  But ever since I moved out of my parent's house I have hated it.  At my first house I would have teenage kids who were not even from my neighborhood come to my door without a costume on, ask for demand candy, and then trample my plants and kick my carved pumpkins on their way to the next house.  I put up with it for two years and then decided to ban the holiday.  I became the scrooge of Halloween, closing the curtains and turning out all the lights at 5pm every Halloween.  But once I became a parent, I started struggling with the pressures of society telling me I was a bad mom if I didn't dress my kids up and take them trick-or-treating.  I'm not a big fan of what Halloween represents, or of feeding boatloads of sugar to my kids, but I do find something endearing about getting out with my kids and paying neighbors a visit once a year.  Plus my kids do like dressing up in costumes.  Well, a couple weeks ago I remembered that back in high school one of my school groups went trick-or-treating for food shelf items as a volunteer activity.  I decided that would be the perfect compromise for our family.  Instead of trick-or-treating for candy, we could go door-to-door collecting food and personal care items to be donated to a local foodshelf.  The kids still get to dress up in [tasteful] costumes, we still get to walk around the neighborhood getting to know our neighbors a little better, AND we get the awesome opportunity to help others and teach our kids about how blessed we are to have fully stocked pantries (sans the sugar-loaded, hyperactive kids).  I printed up some fliers today to put on each of the neighbors doors telling them of our plan, and Kade even got to practice his writing skills as he signed our name on each one.  Now I can honestly say I am looking forward to October 31st for the first time in 12 years!