I *Heart* Halloween!!

9 days!!!! The countdown is on!! Halloween is one of my favourite holidays! (next to Christmas of course ) It always has been! As soon as it gets to the end of September, I start to get excited about Halloween! I love decorating and doing things with the kids for Halloween – making crafts, going to parties, carving pumpkins, coming up with costume ideas, watching the Halloween themed shows and movies, and the candy….you can’t forget that! I love it all!!

I remember as a kid, Halloween was a big deal in our home! We always decorated our house, made crafts and got really excited for October 31st! I remember coming up with costume ideas, and then making them ourselves - a clown, Barbie (with sparkly hair!?!?), dead bride, ghost….and then as an adult being a devil, a Dixie Chick, a cake - to name a few!! I also remember my Mom dressing up. Whether she liked Halloween or not, I don’t really know, but it always seemed to me that she did, cause she would dress up with us when we went out trick or treating! She made Halloween fun for us, and I try to do the same and make it fun for my kids now too!

We grew up in the country as kids, so we always used to go to my Aunt & Uncle’s and go out trick or treating with my cousins who lived in town. It became a tradition that we looked forward to, and although we are all older now,  it is still something that I remember fondly. Once we got back in from collecting candy ourselves, we would help give out treats to the kids coming to the door. So when we bought our first home I was SOOO excited to buy candy, carve a pumpkin and be home to hand out candy! Well, we live in the country. We didn’t get a single soul! So I have to say, that I was pretty excited when my daughter was the age where we could take her out trick or treating! The first couple years we went down to Kanata and went out with friends. It brought me back to when I was a kid going out with my cousins. Ava loved it, and so did I!

This will be our first year taking out our son. Not that he is really going to know anything about candy or what Halloween really means, but I am excited to start sharing with him the traditions of the holiday! How for one day it is socially acceptable to be silly and dress up and go out into public as whoever you wish! I don’t understand how people loose the enthusiasm for Halloween as we grow older. To some it becomes a burden of having to buy candy and unruly kids out on the loose. To me it is fun, it is the smiles and giggles of my daughter out trick or treating, the look on her face when she sees all that she received, and all the costumes she has seen. It is those memories I have of being a kid, when times were simpler. I hope I never loose my love for Halloween!

Do you enjoy Halloween? What do you like or dislike about this holiday?