Fast Forward Through Halloween

Life has been so crazy busy here that Halloween was just a blip on the radar.  There was no time over the weekend to prepare, so yesterday after school, some of us were searching the clearance racks at Target for last minute Halloween decorations.  We rushed home to try on the costumes and wolf down some prepackaged, processed food (horror!), and get out the door before we missed trick-or-treat hours altogether.  I almost forgot to take pictures, and we never had time to carve jack-o-lanterns, and our 7 year old even painted her own face.  Hubby took the youngest three to the nearest town to go door to door because there's nowhere to go up here on our mountain unless you visit the Amish.  And they don't celebrate Halloween.  As of a week ago, only one of our kiddos was even willing to go trick-or-treating because they've been so spooked by this whole scary clown fiasco.  The one who wasn't afraid put together his own makeshift costume and declared himself to be an evil clown terminator.  In any case, at the last minute, three of them did go out for about an hour, and our youngest only refused to stop at a few houses this year: those she deemed too creepy to go near.

Meanwhile, back at home, I agreed to let our teenagers rent a classic chiller from Google Play, and the three of us sat down with a bag of orthodontia-friendly candy (ie. No caramel, gummies, or anything sticky) and watched Alien.  This is actually the first suspense thriller I've let them see.  I've been fairly censorial about the images allowed to enter this house, but they are now the age I was when I saw the stream of 80s horror movies, and I thought Alien was a safe one to start with.  After all, I don't need my older children to be too afraid to retrieve items from the basement, go out to the barn at night, or stay home alone to babysit their younger siblings.  As it turns out, our son didn't find it all that scary, but our daughter has decided that the horror genre is not for her.  I guess there will be no Nightmare on Elm Street, Amityville Horror, or Carrie in her future.  I am relieved to say that everyone did sleep soundly, and there were no night terrors at our farmhouse last night.  Maybe just a bit too much sugar.

Now that the two hours of Halloween have passed, we look forward to Thanksgiving, which I'm hoping is a little slower paced.  A couple of our children will actually be running a 5K that morning while I'm happily cooking away in my nice, warm kitchen.  I'll bet I can find some great deals on turkey and Pilgrim decor now that the stores have displayed all their Christmas merchandise.  I think I'll check that out later today with the littles.