Halloween Memories

As Halloween draws near I can not help but remember some of my favorite holidays. Some are from when I was a child and of course the rest are from when my children were little.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday but Halloween and Christmas rank right up there as well especially when the boys were little. I loved to see the excitement they had for each of these holidays. They were the bright spot to the very cold winters that made me crazy.

Growing up in the middle of cow country there were not a lot of house to trick-or-treat at. My parents were not the type that would drive to a neighborhood so we could trick-or-treat so Halloween did not do a whole lot for me as a kid. Although I do remember the princess/Miss America dress in blue that I had one year and I am sure I dressed up for the Halloween parties at school but I really do not remember any of them. I do remember going to the firehouse one time for their Halloween party and I attempted to bob for apples. Yeah, that was a big hit. For those of you that know me well you know how much I hate the water and getting my face wet in a swimming sort of way. I do remember with great fondness the many Halloweens that we have shared since Paul and I have been married. Once Andrew and then Colin were old enough to wear costumes I made them a variety of costumes and had a lot of fun doing so. Part of the fun was watching them decide what they wanted to be. Once that was complete we would wander in the fabric store finding just the right fabrics and notions for the costumes. No Velcro or glue costumes for my boys. I made the costumes for two reason actually, first I knew how to sew and second they played in the costumes until they outgrew them.

For several years we went to Halloween parties at church as a family and we all dressed up. We were a mouse, cat and elephant when Andrew was two. When Andrew was 3 he discovered Peter Pan so he was Peter Pan, Paul was Captain Hook, I was Wendy and Colin was a Lost Boy (baby). Andrew loved this costume so much he used it two years in a row.

The Halloween that we all still laugh about was in 1994. Andrew and Colin both wanted to be dinosaurs that had morphed from something else. It was a show but I do not remember what show it was. Anyway Andrew was the red dinosaur and Colin was the white dinosaur. The costumes were made out of flannel and they had stuffed head pieced and tails. I had a pretty bad head-cold that year so I stayed home and passed out candy while Paul took the two boys trick-or-treating. They walked the neighborhood with several other Dads with kids in tow. They were at least 4 or 5 blocks from home and Colin was getting tired; the costume was heavier than I realized. So Paul decided to carry Colin for a little bit and then it started to sprinkle. With that Paul and the boys headed for home. Believe me they had enough candy by this time but to make matters worse it started to pour. Of course we did not have cell phones so Paul could not call me to come and pick them up. Paul and Andrew were both pretty tired when they got home. Andrew was walking with the heavy tail dragging behind him and it was even heavier because it was soaked. Paul had to carry a soaking wet child in a heavy dinosaur costume at least three blocks before they arrived back home. Once they arrived home the boys took a warm bath and got ready for bed.

I have wonderful holidays for Thanksgiving and Christmas as well and another time I will share those.