The Great Debate

Let me just say that I know this is a subject of a lot of debate, even among Christians, and this is not me telling anyone what is or isn’t right. This is just me telling how we came to the decision that is right for OUR family.

I found out on Saturday night that Nathan’s mom wanted us to take Shane to trick or treat on Sunday with his cousin Alie. I didn’t grow up trick or treating, and neither did Nathan, so I’d never even thought about taking Shane. We talked about it for a while but didn’t really come to a conclusion. Something about the idea of celebrating Halloween really stuck in my conscience though, and I was really uncomfortable with it, so while Nathan went for a motorcycle ride I called my parents to ask why they had never let us trick or treat, and to ask mom to look up some information about Halloween on the internet. I decided to go for a little walk to clear my head and try to decide how I really felt about trick or treating. As I left the house I prayed that I would have clarity in knowing my own beliefs, and that Nathan and I would both come to the same conclusion. Fast forward about two hours to when Nathan arrived home.

“Can we talk a little about this trick or treating thing?” I asked him.

“We’re not going.” He responded.

After talking for a few more minutes we realized that we’d both come to the same conclusion, and then I told him about my prayer. What a God thing! I was so excited. We decided that we won’t be doing Halloween—no trick or treating or carving pumpkins or dressing up. The exception was this Halloween since he’d already gotten costumes—a monkey costume from his Grammy Vines for pictures with his cousin Alie, and a pumpkin suit from his Aunt Nancy.

We had a nice weekend together. Saturday afternoon we watched the Blue Angels from a blanket in the shade of our car. We’ll probably pay to get in next year when Shane will enjoy it more, but this year we just drove off the highway a little way to watch for free. Free is good!

On Sunday afternoon Melissa came over and we had a yummy lunch, then went over to her friend’s house to watch the trick or treaters and eat venison chili. They approximated they had 700 trick or treaters!!! And man alive, some people’s idea of a costume is just…um…skin. Yeah. We had fun, though, and everyone thought Shane was SOOOO cute. Because he is, of course!

P.S. In that very first picture, you can see the teeth!