we are not weeners, or weaners, but sometimes wieners

When I was a child I love love loved Halloween. I couldn't wait for it, i loved the costumes, the festive 80s sweaters, school parties, and of course the candy! It was really one of my favorite times of year. This might sound funny coming from a mom who has decided not to celebrate Halloween at all, but it is true. It was not an easy choice for me to give up. I decided to put my story into words.......

as a little girl I did a brief stint in a private Christian school (ECS in Memphis Tn). I was only there a few years but those years had a big impact in my life and one of those was Halloween. It was my first encounter with non-celebrators lol. I remember asking my mom why they had a "Harvest Festival" since nobody i knew was harvesting anything but candy corn. I had a few friends there who didn't participate in Halloween. This wasn't a big deal to me, I didn't know why you would pass up free candy but looking back I realize it left me with the knowledge that there are perfectly  nice normal people out there who arent weeners and that is ok.

Fast forward to adulthood. I'm living in Alaska and have made some wonderful friends. One of them is an awesome sister in Christ who is not a weener. She has for great children who really could care less. I totally thought they were missing out. They shared with me some fall traditions they had (cooking soup in a pumpkin, how fun!) and none of them seemed to mind the lack of participation in the cultural norm of Halloween. So later that evening with our husbands deployed, me and my dear friend costume, and bundle our 6 children and I (she was hugely pregnant and stayed in to cook dinner for us) proceed to take them trick or treating in 2ft of snow. We are freezing, we are miserable, there is no fun, only frozen toes.....and I wonder, perhaps if Cathy had the right idea. hmmm

The next year my husband and I decide to just do the church activities instead of a normal Halloween. The kids are happy all was pretty well.....except it was always in my head that we were in fact still celebrating Halloween. There were still scary costumes and everything that went with Halloween, it just happened at church. We explored the history of the holidays (there are multiple histories some good, some bad) and we began to feel convicted that it was not for us, or rather, God did not want us involved. I expected this to really upset the kids, but it didn't. they didn't really seem to care. If you have ever taken candy from a kid you can see that this MUST have been a God thing cause kids don't give up candy without Divine intervention. No Halloween= no problem :)

The next year the Lord blessed us with a pregnancy following a loss. We prayed that this baby would be special, be a child of God, be healthy and serve the Lord. The day I learned I was pregnant I also calculated my due date would be Oct 31. I  knew very well that babies are rarely born on their due date, but something in me wanted this one to be. I had never given birth on my due date. I had never made it that far along yet somehow I knew this baby was coming on Halloween. I really really wanted him to!!! I did every labor trick in the book but ultimately I know that babies come when they are meant to. I wanted him to be born on Halloween because I had this awesome idea that instead of celebrating Halloween or (like the last few years) planning to be out of the house and avoiding it, we would celebrate the birth of a blessing every year. I decided we would have Pike's birthday on Oct 31 and we would use that day to be thankful for our precious 5th born. Well God took me up on that one and Pike was born at 10pm that very night!

That was eleven months ago! wow, it seems like yesterday. Now that the birthday is fast approaching I am plagued with doubt. If I have his party on Halloween will anyone come? will anyone care or will they all be too busy with costumes and candy? it would be so easy to plan it for another day, he wouldn't know and people do that all the time.

After a few days of prayerful thought I remembered asking God to deliver Pike on this special day. I recalled the promise I made to celebrate this gift every year on this day. Do do something better than avoid Halloween, to use this day to bring glory to the Lord..........and so I write it and commit myself to it. Maybe nobody will come , perhaps it will be just us celebrating, but God will know I followed through and I will every year. So if you are not a weener and you are looking for something fun to do just let me know! We will be partying it up for Pike on Halloween his birthday! and we would love for everyone to join us :)

not a weener= don't celebrate Halloween
not a weaner= breastfeed till baby says no thanks
but yes we do enjoy the occasional hot dog and we will play with a dachsund when we see one :)