Halloween

I have a love/hate relationship with Halloween. I have a decent sweet tooth and I enjoy playing dress-up. But I hate surprises and being scared. I went to Knott's Scary Farm when I was in high school. There was a thick layer of fake fog covering the ground, and these people kept sliding on knee pads up to me and grabbing my ankles. Nothing could be more terrifying to me. I hate haunted houses, people jumping out and scaring me, and closing my eyes and sticking my hands in weird foods that feel like brains and eyeballs. And now that I'm a teacher and 30 years old, my new reason for disliking Halloween is that it appears to be an excuse for 10-40 year old girls and women to dress like hookers. Half the girls in my middle school were dressed like slutty ladybugs, slutty princesses, slutty nurses, and just plain sluts. They are twelve years old. Lord help me if I ever have a daughter.

But I do love to play dress-up, and now that I have a son I have my real live doll child to dress up as well. So we put him in a little spider costume that I borrowed from Molly (I'm not spending $30 on a costume for a one-year-old that he will wear for 20 minutes and never remember). The Gibbses and their Bible study group put together a little neighborhood party, so we stopped by that for a little bit. That was the extent of our Halloween activities. Ben wandered around stealing the bean bags and the rings from the big kids' games, stealing the candy and sucking on the wrappers, and wrapping himself around my legs (he actually gets pretty shy around large groups of people). Adalee was a princess, and she was super cute. We met a few of our neighbors, which was nice. So Ben's second Halloween was a success. Next year I will probably start putting more effort into the holiday thing, since Ben will be more likely to enjoy it and remember it. And I will put off the trick or treating and the candy for as long as possible. But he was VERY cute--despite the game-ruining. :)