Anyone who knows my family is usually aware that we're not that keen on Halloween for a few different reasons. I'm not going to go into it all but I will mention one since I saw so much of it this year. I'm rather put off with all the begging for candy that goes on. What exactly are we teaching? Often kids will judge people based on the candy they get and they are rarely, if ever, very grateful. We may force them to say "thank you" but I remember being a kid--you didn't look on all the candy as a gift, it was more of an obligation that people gave you candy. And there's always the competition as to who got the most candy, etc.
When I was young, my mom would try to create some kinds of "Harvest Days" celebration so we could dress up. But as far as Halloween night goes, our family would leave the house and go do dinner and a movie. It's amazing just how empty those types of places are on Halloween ;) I really like the dinner and a movie tradition but we thought we'd try something a little different this year (I think it was just Daniel's excuse to dress Stephen in a kitty costume.)
A few weeks ago an older, single woman in my ward told me that last year she dressed up for Halloween and dressed her dog up and not a single person came by. She was really sad. I was sad for her. When I told Dan about it, we talked about how there were probably many people just like this sister. That gave us an idea that we tried this year and loved it. We made a bunch of Rice Krispie treats with candy pumpkins on top and then went "treating" to some shut-ins, sisters we knew wouldn't get many trick-or-treaters, and people in our
ward that are less-active. It was so fun. People were so surprised to get a treat. There were some sweet old ladies that just brightened up when we came by. Course, Stephen was the one that did most of the brightening. We dressed him up as a little leopard. He didn’t care much for the make up I put on his face (hence the rather messy nose and whiskers) or the head gear. But he did his job perfectly! He broke the ice with all the people we didn’t know—he just put on his smile and voila instant friends ;) It’s funny how that happens.
Stephen's cousin, Michelle, moved to Japan this morning. She'll be gone for 3 years. We're glad she gets to join her husband who is serving there but we are going to miss her. She got her braces off a few days ago. Stephen was fascinated with her braces. They were ever so tempting ;) Even though I'm sure he missed the shiny things on her teeth, he still enjoyed being held by her. We love you Michelle!
was that most of our nice stuff is still in storage so we had kind of a hodge/podge as far as place-settings and serving dishes go.
It took a few minute for him to warm up to them but then he loved every minute that they were here--which, sadly, was only 2 days:( They did buy him some really cute clothes including this little trendy "thanksgiving" number. Poor Grandpa started a few times when I'd call for Stephen--it's not fun having a poopin', slobberin', spittin' baby around with the same name :)
A few weeks ago an older, single woman in my ward told me that last year she dressed up for Halloween and dressed her dog up and not a single person came by. She was really sad. I was sad for her. When I told Dan about it, we talked about how there were probably many people just like this sister. That gave us an idea that we tried this year and loved it. We made a bunch of Rice Krispie treats with candy pumpkins on top and then went "treating" to some shut-ins, sisters we knew wouldn't get many trick-or-treaters, and people in our 
ward that are less-active. It was so fun. People were so surprised to get a treat. There were some sweet old ladies that just brightened up when we came by. Course, Stephen was the one that did most of the brightening. We dressed him up as a little leopard. He didn’t care much for the make up I put on his face (hence the rather messy nose and whiskers) or the head gear. But he did his job perfectly! He broke the ice with all the people we didn’t know—he just put on his smile and voila instant friends ;) It’s funny how that happens. 
Stephen LOVES water! 