Happy Halloween Everyone! Our week has been filled with some fun Fall activities. It's been nice having some cooler weather to actually make it feel like it's the Fall season. We pulled out the jackets and long sleeve shirts this week. The cold weather is making me think about the holidays, campfires, family time, soup, and hot chocolate...so much fun and so many things to be thankful for!
Andy and the boys carved a pumpkin this week. That has become a family activity that we look forward to every year. Andy usually helps the boys design the pumpkin and I'm usually responsible for cleaning and toasting the pumpkin seeds for everyone to snack on later. This year we decided to go with the cross for the design of our pumpkin. Thought we'd change it up and do something different this year. We've done happy faces and tiger paws (Go Clemson!) in years past. Got a few pictures to share with you from this week.....
The boys had a great time with Andy! Making a mess is always lots of fun!
This is what the pumpkin looks like at night. I thought this was an awesome picture. Every time I look at the lit pumpkin I'm reminded of what Jesus said in John 8:12...He said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."Halloween means something different to each person. Some people are totally involved in the traditions of our society, while others find the Halloween topic something that they don't even want mentioned around them. When Charlie was born, Andy and I hadn't really figured out where we stood on the whole "Halloween issue". We wavered back and forth trying to figure out what we should do. We didn't want to just do something because everybody else was doing it. We wanted to be deliberate about whatever traditions we were going to follow. We wanted to be able to know and understand our reasoning behind whatever we did. We also wanted to be able to explain to our children why we were doing the things we were doing.
The first few years we really didn't participate in anything on Halloween. Charlie didn't really know a whole lot about what he was missing out on because he was so young. But as he got older he began to ask questions and show interest in dressing up and trick-or-treating with some of his friends. At that time I decided that I wanted to know exactly what it was that God would have our family do during the Halloween season. I came across the book Redeeming Halloween by Kim Wier and Pam McCune. These two ladies are Chrisitan women who went through the same Halloween struggles for years. The book they've written highlights the history of Halloween, misconceptions about the holiday, and activities for making the holiday special. I highly recommend it for any of you who may be wondering about the history of Halloween or wanting new Halloween traditions for your family. It's also great for those of you who may be trying to figure out if you even want to participate in celebrating Halloween at all. I've learned so much from reading the book. The biggest thing that I've taken away from reading it is that our family can honor Jesus on Halloween. That has become our goal - to honor Jesus, the light of the world, on Halloween and every day of the year!
Do you have a favorite Halloween tradition? Please share...
Happy Halloween!
