Halloween

I have a love-hate relationship with Halloween. The first year we lived here, we passed out candy (Carver was just a baby), and I was so bothered by the ungratefulness and greediness of the kids who came knocking that we quit for two years. At that point, a friend of ours said to us, "Why is it that on the holiday where most Americans open up their front doors and are friendly with their neighbors, we Christians hide upstairs with the lights turned off?" We found that pretty convincing, and have been doing Halloween ever since. I'm still frustrated when kids walk up to the door, mutter something about "trick-or-treat", grab an entire handful of candy (at which point I tell them "1 please!"), and walk away without saying thank you. But for the most part, it has been fun to get out and see what the neighbors are wearing and get to say hi to their kids as they come asking for candy.

Here are our three, just about to start out.

Actually, you'll notice that Laura looks a little under the weather. We gave her the award for scariest costume: H1N1 Dino. She and Rose and I stayed home to pass out candy and the swine flu to ungrateful Halloween-goers :)

We invited several church families to trick-or-treat again with us this year. We had 17 kids total. Pretty good, huh?


Here's our little pandemic dino:


Side note: We don't know if she actually has the swine flu. We're not going to get her tested unless she develops respiratory problems, at which point we'll be headed to the ER, stat! Please pray that she gets over it safely, and that none of the others get it!