1 Little Monkey and Obi-Won Kenobe

Growing up Halloween was as big as Christmas in my house. It was a HUGE deal! My mom loves the spooky side of things and loves to go and visit graveyards. (I love her... but she's a freak. Hi mom!) Anyway, we would bob for apples, dress up in all sorts of costumes, and even turn part of the house into a haunted house for people to go through. It was a great time and loads of fun.

As I got older I stopped watching all the spooky movies. My imagination would hold onto those images and I realized it was not worth the price of having them in my head anymore. While working... yup, I used to do that many moons ago... I shared an office with a practicing witch. We would talk about our different views and I was truly enlightened about the reality of witchcraft. We ended up heading to Boston on business and one weekend we went to Salem to check out the sites. We went to a witch graveyard and different museums. She was in heaven while I continually had the heeby jeebies. At that moment I had the conviction to teach my future kids that witches are very real and so is Jesus!

Fast forward to Dylan's first Halloween. Jason and I really kicked around the idea of whether we should celebrate it or not. We chose not to. We chose instead to make it a family movie night. Dylan has never been without dress ups in the playroom or opportunity to eat candy. We stayed consistent with "don't take candy from strangers"... that even means on holidays like Halloween. All in all it has never been an issue.

This year has been such a year for change! As Oct. 31st approached Jason and I revisited whether we were going to let the kids dress up and do the Halloween thing. Well, we did. We headed to our church where they had a carnival with costume contests, a chili cook off, a pie baking contest, games, candy, and more candy!


A couple years ago Jason's mom and Aunt had come out and taught Dylan and I how to make pecan pie. We have made it every year since. Last night we made our pie and entered it in the pie contest. Sure enough... it won 1st place!!! Yeah us!!

We ended our night by stopping by the Hamptons. The kids ran around and played while we we were able to sit by the fire, have a drink and talk a little politics. It was around 11:00PM when our little monkey and Obi-Won Kenobe hit the pillow with Jason and I right behind. I think it is safe to say that today will be a pajama day!