Changing my mind about Oct 31

In the spirit of the election NEXT WEEK (whoa), I think I've done a flip-flop. I've gone and changed my mind about Halloween.

Or perhaps we can call it "Harvest Celebration," if that keeps your evil-bells from going off.

Yes, there are definitely lots of things about Halloween (and its history) that I'm NOT a superfan of.   I also cannot stand being scared - I don't even watch the commercials for horror movies.  And since I was maybe 12, dressing up wasn't all that fun for some reason (miiiiiinus this party from college, a pic I'm pretty sure has made it onto the blog in the past:)

2005

OK... while I'm thinking about it, dressing up pets is pretty hilarious.

2011

So maybe in my mind I've been all "I don't like Halloween," but in reality it's been not-so-bad, leaning toward fun.

But wait!  NOW we have a kid!!  And kids are ADORABLE in costumes!  Even cuter than pets maybe?? (though my challenge next year is to do a coordinating costume with Aslan, like these from Young House Love)

Danny's mom sent Addie a cute little strawberry suit back in July.  I exaggerate.  It probably wasn't that long ago, but my point is that I've had a looong time to think about the costume.  It wasn't until approximately 3pm on October 31 that I realized I should try to dress up too, and to coordinate.  Thanks to my awesome neighbor, my parents, and a very DIY-looking construction paper job, I landed on our costume, pulling all the parts together at 5pm, with exactly 60 minutes to spare before the party at church.  Which was a really fun alternative to walking around in the freezing cold in the dark.  With a 1-year-old, who doesn't eat candy.  Or talk.  The church party is also just an amazing display of a LOT of creativity and hard work by a LOT of people, and a really cool way to love on like a million kids (now I'm not exaggerating).

Addison was loving every second of this puffy costume - getting stuffed in a bucket in the freezing cold and all.

the littlest attendees.

Yep, Halloween (Harvest Celebration?) might just have a couple new fans (oh, and the fact that we bought tons of candy and had all of three Trick-or-Treaters so now there's still tons of candy on our counter? also helping the cause.)



Where's Danny in these pictures?? you ask.  Well, y'all, he's against all celebrations of Halloween.  Just kidding!!!  He had night class, so he missed out on all the treats.  Not wanting to leave daddy completely out, he got included on the tricks around midnight, when our overstimulated little strawberry woke up not so happy.  Ah well, you only have your first Halloween once...