We finally carved the pumpkins this afternoon. Meant to do it before last Sunday (the official Halloween). But this life, this schedule? wasn't gonna happen. So, today.
Just me and the two younger boys. Everyone else was away from home. I waited for the sun to warm the air up a bit so that we'd be comfortable while we carved.
DJ has begged to carve pumpkins since last year. It's not really been a priority for me, ever, but my kids know how to tug my heart strings ~ anything that has "memory-making" on it, and I'm jumping through hoops to get 'er done. (I have this insane fear that my kids will leave home and never want to return if I don't do "just enough" with them. I know, it's crazy... and impossible.)
So, about the pumpkins. Had four on the porch, ready to go. Had bought my carving kit with 15 different stencils. I cut the tops off the pumpkins and cleaned mine and the boys'.
DJ gave up first. He would say it was because he got that nasty cut from the kit's sawing tool ("safer than kitchen knives!!!"), but he was moaning about the nastiness of it a good 7 minutes before the blood-letting.
Jake hung with me longer than I expected, but he'd picked one of the hardest stencils & just ran out of steam dealing with the intricate turns.
I was determined to finish MY pumpkin, so I ended up with the job of all three of them.
Cole (our Lab) was the only one to stick it out with me. He'll do anything for a chest rub now & then on.
So, the pumpkins got done. Lined them up on the porch for pictures. Lit them up when the sun set. And they're beautiful! The boys squealed all over them, just like they'd done them themselves (which you did not!!! don't forget how you bailed on me!!)
The epiphany came after dinner, as I worked in the kitchen. The realization that I need to stop worrying about making my kids happy enough to return home for visits. Because honestly? They're already ruined.
DJ comes in and asks in the sweetest voice (because he knows he can wrap me around his pinkie): "Mom, can you get our candy boxes down? And Jake & I are gonna get dressed up and come to the front door & ring the doorbell, and you're gonna answer and give us our candy?
Because, you know, the pumpkins are lit, and we can play 'Halloween' now."
The explanation for this: our family does not celebrate Halloween. Never have.
Nope, I do not have a problem with other families who want to do this. I don't think others are making some big mistake letting their kids dress up & go trick-or-treating. Period.
The vast majority of people I hang around with, though, don't celebrate Halloween, either, and so we're all on the same page. Instead, we celebrate the Reformation on October 31 with a huge shindig at church. We get a great speaker in each October, we have a church family meal together, and there's a huge party put on for the kids: games, etc. with TONS of candy, awards, and everything else. It's a blast, and our kids have always enjoyed that.
I have close friends who are very passionate about not observing Halloween, and our family thinks it's better to not involve ourselves in a holiday with dark roots. There's enough about Halloween and all it embodies to convict us that it's better for us to focus elsewhere. We LOVE to celebrate the history of the church that began with the Reformation period, and so that's what we choose to do instead.
But then there's DJ, who's always throwing me these curve balls. And as he came and requested a Halloween re-enactment on our front porch, I realized that he will probably be on some psych's couch in 20 years lamenting the fact that he grew up without Halloween!! And Santa! And the Easter Bunny, too, for crying out loud!!
So, they rang the bell and I answered with "oohs" and "aaahs" over their costumes. And I gave myself the rest of the evening off.
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