All Hallow's Eve

I don't like Halloween. Mike doesn't like Halloween. Neither of us trick-or-treated when we were young and outfitting our children in costumes and going out in the rain to collect candy we won't let them eat doesn't appeal now.

And as hard as I try I can't find some way to find value and (good) meaning to the holiday and make it worthy of celebration. In the circles we are in, the day has been named Harvest Day, Pumpkin Day, and Reformation Day. And they all fail to stack up to the meaning of Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, or even Valentine's Day. November 1 is All Saints Day and that one is a little better, but dressing up like your favorite saint is just not my idea of a good time.

But Ben is now old enough to know something is going on. And we don't want to have him miss out on what seems fun (and harmless) to him without due cause. So I've been scouting possible fun things to do. We have an agritourist farm near us that has hayrides, barn slides, goats to feed, and other fun things. But rain is in the forecast (and very believably so) and that sounds just cold and miserable.

When I was a little girl, my aunt and uncle lived for a time up in the woods on property where they built a home as they could (afford and had time) and eventually achieved electricity and then plumbing. But I spent some Halloween nights in their cozy cabin carving pumpkins, bobbing for apples, and trekking up to the outhouse (which was as scary as I could handle). At least one year it was all done by lantern and candlelight (before they had electricity). Now that was memorable, fun, and safe. And I didn't come home sick from all the candy.

I know other years my parents would let us dress up and answer the door to trick-or-treaters in costume. But people are a little more careful about where they take their kids trick-or-treating now and we haven't really had any trick-or-treaters in recent years.

Not to mention, I just hate the whole "trick-or-treat" concept.

So once again, we'll probably not say anything and see what Ben does with the day. He's pretty creative anyway.