How could anyone hate Halloween? A bigger question: how could I marry someone who hates Halloween? When my otherwise perfect husband (future husband at the time) told me he hated Halloween in college, I dismissed it. He's kidding. He's not had Halloween with me. This is like when he thought he was a Republican (because of the way he was raised), but when quizzed on the issues and having it explained by a sexy social science major, he realized he was almost as far left as me. It's like growing up thinking you hate (or love) a certain food because of the way your mom made it, but when you get to the real world you realize NO ONE puts mayo on hot dogs. Bummer.
So I talked Jon into carving a pumpkin with me and Nolan. Nolan was soooo excited. He picked this pumpkin at a pumpkin patch all by himself. (See facebook account for way too many pictures of my cuties at pumpkin patches.) Nolan couldn't wait. "When will Dad be home?" "Do we have to wait until after we eat dinner to carve?" "Can I touch the knife?" etc. Finally, Jon got home. We ate. We cleaned off the kitchen table. We threaten Nolan, "If you ask one more time when we are going to carve the pumpkin, you'll just go to bed right now." And the carving began. Although Nolan and I have carved a pumpkin everyone of last 3 three years, he doesn't remember it, so this he considers his first time. He loved it. He designed it to look exactly like the plastic pumpkin you collect candy in: a quintessential jack-o-lantern face. I talked him into little fangs just because my creative urges couldn't be stopped.
We lit it up with parentally correct battery powered fake candle and took pictures. Nolan was so proud. And as Jon and I got ready for bed, I thanked him for doing this with us. I knew he hated every minute, but like the perfect dad he is, he didn't complain about it one syllable. And in the sweetest quiet of 2 kids sleeping, Jon said, "It wasn't as boring as I remember." I consider this one of my finest accomplishments.
4 comments:
Very cute Heidi. I have to admit, I am not a Halloween person myself! I grew up in the country where there isn't any trick or treating going on, and so I have actually only been once, and that was in 6th grade!
Nolan looks so proud in this picture!
I'm with Jon. I could live without Halloween. You could bring any holiday alive Heidi. You bring so much joy to my life and I'm a crusty 34 year old. Nolan and MJ are super lucky to have you sheparding them through life!
Great story. Funny about Halloween. There are many who have strong positive or negative feelings about it. You don't hear that intensity around most other holidays like Thanksgiving and 4th of July.
We have friends in Sonoma who are CRAZY LOONEY WHACKO about halloween - Joe and Jan Capone. Jan is a home decorator by trade, and she has the largest collection of decorations I've ever seen. The guy up the street here on Tennys is also a Halloween fan. He puts a graveyard in his front lawn every year with ghouls and rubber hands and so on.
When I was a kid we began trick or treating on Oct 24 every year. For a week kids went door to door. I don't know if that was a local tradition, or if me and my friends were nuts, but we sure stockpiled a lot of candy. Our freezer would be packed with goodies through February - and these were the big candies - full-sized Reese Cups, Hershey Bars, Mallo Cups and so on.
So, as you can see, I enjoyed your story. It brought back memories.
Halloween conjures up memories of stress, even as a kid! Getting the costume thing together was very stressful! Now, somehow, I'm in charge of making sure my kids have costumes...every year it freaks me out! Now, they are older and take more ownership...THANK THE MAKER! My kids created costumes this year from things at our house. Spencer was an old lady (hilarious!). Aidan was Syd Barrett, the drug-addled founder of Pink Floyd. He took too much LSD and went nuts. I guess the holiday has changed over the last few years! The most profound sign of the change...a lone teenager came trick-or-treating at our house while on his cell phone. He sees our candy and tells his friend on the phone, "Dude, they got nuclear war head candy! Cool!" Well, at least he liked our candy!
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