I blogged to you yesterday about going to some sort of Halloween Alternative event type thing instead of trick or treating last night. That's what we did, folks. We went to a church up the street from us to enjoy their festivities. Youngest got this adorable Cheetah face. Does it say anything about him that his favorite animal is also the fastest animal? You would have thought from the massive row of signs advertising their event, that this would have been a bit of a big deal. There was live music (2 singers and a guitar player), about 5 tables of simple carnival games and food. I'd rate the food as a winner. Free hot dogs, popcorn, drinks, cotton candy and sno-cones. It was freezing so I must admit I didn't sample the sno-cones. You can fill in the blanks.Soccer Chick was less than thrilled as she contemplated sporting a pout across her face. She would have much rather been trick-or-treating. When she was really young we were still participators of that, but of course she can't remember. All she knows is her friends get to do it and she doesn't. Sometimes in life, as parents, we make these decisions that make no sense to our kids. Those also tend to be things that are hard to explain clearly in a way they can understand. In a quiet moment she fell into me for a hug and I said, "hey girl. There are those things in life that we don't get choices about. Our parents are going to decide for us. But we do get to choose our attitude." Totally channeling my mother... As our sweet moment ended, she wiped some tears from her sad little eyes and I could see a glimmer of hope. Shortly after, she was having a good time eating the food and chuckling at some of the costumes. I must say that I appreciate her willingness to cope with tough situations. I seem to remember a certain other girl, who back in her day, knew how to sulk like it was nobody's business. Talk about a major brat. Bball Girl and Youngest, on the other hand, are both still of the precious age where they didn't really care. They may have liked to have gone trick or treating and Youngest sure was running through the house talking about "Happy Halloween" but still, they were very excited to go to the Trunk Or Treat.
What we found was the event was not very well attended. The kids enjoyed the moon bounce and the table games but overall it just seemed like there weren't that many people there and once we ate and did the games the kids were bored. How many times can a kid visit the duck pond game? So what's a non-trick-or-treating family to do? We hopped in the car and headed to another one, of course! A church that sits behind my mother-in-law's house also hosts this annual event. If memory serves me correctly, I do believe we visited both these spots last year as well. This year we pulled my self-imposed home-bound mother in law with us. She did the full-on pout with a stuck out bottom lip. She didn't have any interest in leaving her warm house and trotting oh, 50 feet into her own backyard. This same woman got herself a plastic bag and visited each one of those trunks to collect candy for herself. Just as we predicted, she complained about being pulled out of her house but by the time she returned she couldn't stop raving about how much fun she had. Aren't we just like that, ya'll? We decide in advance what we will like and not like and then come to find that we are usually completely wrong. Speaks volumes about how pre-judge, doesn't it?
What I really have to confess is how each year when we attend these I always feel like we are getting dirty looks from the hosts. Especially when we do the trunk or treat part and you walk up to a car trunk with your kids in tow. Mind you, my kids are not in costumes, and people give these funny looks. I know they are thinking where are their costumes? Occasionally we have even hear people comment about them lacking costumes. I have to pause and think to myself, this is a church providing a Halloween alternative. Why would people look funny at us if we don't dress up? Don't they know the purpose of providing a Halloween alternative? There is also that inside part of me that wants to say, hey buddy! I'm a Christian. I'm not one of THEM. You know...the "thems." The non-Christians that churches are trying to reach through these events. But I don't say any of that, and they don't know any of that, so I smile and nod and slowly move on to the next trunk.
I think these events have become more of a "provide a safe place for trick or treating" rather than a "we don't participate in trick or treating" kind of event. There is a difference. Judging from the costumes of the workers, the bloody faces, scary masks, vampire teeth and fakes knives, I would say the reason to not celebrate Halloween has been lost in translation. Last night there was even a trunk/costume judging contest and the winner was Count Trunk-ula, coming complete with a full vampire costume, fog, a coffin next to the trunk and a lovely gentleman with bloody teeth. Nice. Personally, I would think the guy in the all black with the Scream mask and fake machete in his hand took the cake.
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