The past two days Rose & I have been putting together the Trick or Treat outfits for the children. Max wanted to be a scarecrow, Margaret wanted to be an "acrobatics girl", Ella wanted to be a swimsuit model, and LMark didn't care.If I had been thinking I would have gotten through Halloween having spent only a few dollars. Max's hay would have been a dollar or two. Margaret wanted to wear the same thing she wore last year, and Ella just needed to put on her bathing suit. LMark could have gone to bed for the night and never would have been the wiser.
But, I got ambitious. I found an $8 Fireman's jacket & hat at WalMart that was perfect for Max. Then I found a Zorro hat and mask for $5 for LMark. Then Ella called me at the store and decided she wanted to be grapes. Not a problem: balloons are 99 cents a bag and grape leaves are just a couple dollars. But if I had returned home with nothing for Margaret she would have felt slighted. So I got her a little ballerina outfit.
Ella, just as we are about to walk out the door decides, as usual, to have problems with her somewhat bulky costume. But this required a mere: "OK, not a problem, you can wear your t-shirt and jeans..." At this point she decided to be agreeable and put on her grape suit. Rose told me she was all the rage around the neighborhood. Everyone they passed said, "There's the grapes girl!" A particularly funny boy held up a box of raisins to her and said, "BEHOLD, Your FUTURE!!" Ella was delighted with the attention. She's usually kind of shy so this was a big breakthrough for her.
A sweet story: We went down to my parents' house before trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. As we passed the church on the corner leading to their neighborhood there was some activity at the door. Ella said, "They must be going to church." I said, "They probably have a harvest festival going on..." Ella replied, "But they're dressed up like for church..."
As we turned the corner leaving my parents' neighborhood a short while later, Ella had made up her mind about what was going on there: "They were probably getting together to talk about how they shouldn't have scary costumes at Halloween. Because that wouldn't be a good thing to spread the Word of Christ."
We passed two anti-Halloween carnivals on the way home. There are two recently built churches within minutes from our house. They were having harvest festivities at the Life Springs Church and at the Sinner Point just around the corner. It's not really called "Sinner Point," but actually, "Centre Pointe." I think it's funny that no one realized the obviously double entendre before they finalized the signage. At Life Springs they had a hot air balloon, some spinny rides, and a few bouncy thingamajigs. At Sinner Point they had a bonfire.
Funny.
