Halloween

Halloween is not a big to-do at our house.  Our neighborhood does not have sidewalks and doesn't feel safe for kids to be walking in the dark.  We often do not get any trick-or-treaters at all. I always feel compelled to buy Halloween candy "just in case," but we usually end up eating it ourselves.  Halloween is fun when you have small kids, but at 16, our daughter is no longer trick-or-treating.  Last year, we did not even carve pumpkins.

This year, I felt like I didn't want to miss out.  I like tradition and felt a sense of loss for not participating in recent years.  So this year, we carved pumpkins for Ashley's birthday at the beginning of the month.  And when those grew moldy, we carved new ones. 

A couple weeks ago, Ashley and I were at Target doing some shopping.  I went to the Halloween aisle to look for candy for my kids at school and happened upon the animal costumes. I always love the dog costumes!  I'm lucky because Pongo will wear whatever I put on him.  Hats were just a couple of dollars, surely we could afford that!  I picked up a pirate hat and a chef's hat.

"Which one should we get for Pongo?" I asked Ashley.

She paused for a minute, thinking it over, then picked the chef's hat.

"Oh, that's perfect.  He's always in the kitchen!"

Then I decided to sew an apron for him.  I embroidered "Chef Po" in green by hand and then hemmed it and made straps on the sewing machine. I decided to dress up as a witch and found most of my costume in a box in the garage.

I invited a neighbor family to come by with their two kids on Halloween between 5 and 6.  The morning of October 31, I got up at 2am and made Halloween cookies. Of course at our house, Halloween cookies means black cats and pumpkins . . . .

  

 Halloween and Christmas are my favorite cookie making times of the year - about the only time of the year I make cut out cookies.

       Here Pongo sports his Halloween costume.

         Pongo and his mommy pose for pictures. 

  It was a lovely evening, and we even got a few trick-or-treaters!

Maybe it was the cute jack o'lanterns!

Happy Halloween from the Wulffs!