Homemaking Tip—to ‘ween or not to ‘ween

I’ve gone from one end of the pendulum to the other with Halloween. I loved it as a kid. I can still remember what it smelled like to open a tightly closed trick-or-treat bag and be hit by the apple, chocolate, popcorn ball combination smell. I wasn’t crazy about trying to find a costume out of the costume drawer (you can only be an Indian, clown, or dog so many times), but I did like fall and pumpkins and candy and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and trick-or-treating.

Then, I was mom of middle-aged kids and it bugged me that we could celebrate witches and devils at school but we couldn’t baby Jesus. It just didn’t seem right. The more I thought about it the more Halloween bugged me. In fact, that was back when I sold crafts to supplement our income and in my boldest Halloween protest, I took the dozen wooden/fabric ghosts I had made and ready to deliver to the store to a dumpster and said, “Be gone.” (Pretty big move for me. It was $120 worth of profit. But I had newfound Halloween principles, don't you see.) Since we seldom (meaning almost never) went to the movies or dinner in restaurants, I suggested to Calvin and the kids that instead of spending money on Halloween we went to a movie and supper instead (Mighty Ducks and Pure Country were the options that first year). The kids were game, so we celebrated Halloween at the movies for a few years.


When my friend heard our Halloween plan she suggested that instead of going to town we come to their home. Since they lived where no trick-or-treaters dare go it was so far off the beaten track, we went to their home for a video and baked potato bar (that is where Jurassic Park made its debut). We enjoyed doing that for a few years, too.

(Are the details derailing you in this story?)

A few years later the Church started a trunk-or-treat on Halloween evening so we participated in that and then went to our off-the-beaten-track-friends’ home for a movie and supper. The Halloween pendulum began its swing back.

Today the ball is dead center. Stuck. It isn’t on one side or the other. I neither detest nor embrace Halloween--it's like a cartoon and Frosty, the Snowman.

This past weekend Calvin and I went to Utah and Idaho to see Trevor and Trent, our two oldest boys from Calvin’s first marriage. When we got to Trevor’s home, Lacie (Trevor’s oldest daughter) was making this mummy for me. It has electrical tape around the neck of the bottle for a black rim, two squiggly eyes stuck to the middle and gauze wrapped around the rest and slightly tacked with glue. It’s so cute. She said she got the idea from a daycare that she cleans for. She filled it with orange and black jelly beans and pumpkins and candy corn.

While Trevor and Calvin went to try the sight that Calvin had made for Trevor’s gun, Michelle and the girls and I went to the scrapbook outlet. They had darling vinyl Halloween paper and a pattern for making Halloween sacks so we got the supplies to make some. We came home and while Trevor and Calvin grilled buffalo burgers, we made the sacks. In theory, they’re a ten minute project and they’re easy and cute. I filled one sack with candy and took it to Ande when we saw her the next day.

I left the sack-making directions at Trevor and Michelle’s and my technical writing skills are poor at best, but in story problem fashion this is what you do to make a sack:

Take two 12” x 12” pieces of paper. Cut two inch squares out of both sides of the bottom of the paper. Crease and fold the paper to make the sack sides and bottom (two inches in from both sides and two inches up from the bottom). Glue the flaps together with a glue-stick. Ta-da. Paper sack. Embellish with ribbon handles. I'm excited to make a few from Thanksgiving and Christmas paper and fill them with popcorn balls.

Where does your Halloween pendulum swing?