Name that Clone

Every year we wait until about a week past prime time to buy costumes and end up with the picked-over left-overs. I used to think I'd make the costumes every year, like my mom always did, but after I spent $70 on ET, it was just cheaper to shell out the cash. This year we continued the tradition, so as precious as they are, these weren't anyone's first choice. But they were thrilled to all be matching once it was decided. Besides, aren't they sweet??? Everyone in the neighborhood commented on my clone troopers when they rang our doorbell.

Leila tried to go down the street with them, but the scary haunted house at the end of the lane sent her home screaming. Inside the house, we opted for an endless It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown marathon and the treating of the Trick or Treaters.



We have never lived in an area that I trusted enough to send my kids out on their own to knock on doors because we live in a scary world peppered with spooky people. This year, however, because we know almost everyone in the entire reservation on a first name basis, I felt safe sending them out without me. By the time they started up to the last street, it was starting to get dark, but they teamed up with their favorite hang out parents down the street and finished the journey with adult accompaniment. It was the thrill of the year.

One of the local churches puts on a giant block party here every year that we went to after it got dark; it was incredible. There must have been 150 different booths and games set up across three parking lot, as well as cheap food and entertainment for the whole community. I love it that churches find this a worthwhile event each year.

Following our adventure through the masses, we settled in to our cozy living room in our pajamas and blankets and shut out all the lights for the initiation of my personal favorite event of the year, The Scariest Noise Competition. The first year we held this event, Dale and I laughed till we cried from the obnoxious sounds that we both deemed as *scary noises*. This kids laughed along with us, but they had no idea why our noises were so weird when they were all being so scary. We have yet to top that one, but we all loved it this year just the same.

The whole question of whether or not it is morally correct to celebrate Halloween, I've heard it called *the Devil's Holiday*, we settled in our hearts a long time ago. This year Dale explained the true history to the kids after one of their friends told them that Jesus didn't like Trick or Treating. Like everything entailed in living in a fallen world, it is a matter of the heart. If your heart is to honor God in all you do, then where is the wrong in dressing up and collecting candy from your benevolent neighbors? There is so much bad in the world, we try to make the fun things as fun as they can possibly be for our family by starting and carrying on home-spun traditions with each passing year. It makes the sweetness of this life just a little sweeter.