Halloween

Remember the little plastic Halloween costumes? They body of it was plastic and then it was topped up with a plastic mask with cut out holes for your eyes and mouth. I can't tell you how many of those I have worn. I distinctly remember being Barbie one year. We'd bundle up and put the costume up over our clothes and then put on the mask and we were set. We always had the little orange pumpkin candy buckets. Our parents would load us up and we'd make the stops to grandparents and then hit a few houses.

As we got older, our costumes evolved. No more plastic bodies. I remember being a California singing raisin one year. One year I was a carrot. The neighborhood was so alive on Halloween! All the kids were out on the sidewalks, all the houses were lit up waiting for trick-or-treaters (well, not that ONE house; every neighborhood had that ONE house that was dark and nobody would visit)!

When my kiddos were little we did the same things. We bundled them up, took them to see grandparents, took them door-to-door. For many years, we would take the kids to my sister's and the dads would take the kids trick-or-treating while the moms stayed back to hand out candy.

Now they're older. The kids go out on their own and the grown ups sit back and chat. We have a tradition now of 50 cent corn dogs from Sonic and tater tots. Kids grab food on their way to the next adventure or on the way to the fold up table to carve pumpkins. The neighbors join us.

Life is constantly changing. Everyone is on the move. It's nice that Halloween lets us all connect and move about in our circles creating new traditions and letting go of old ones that don't fit anymore. Still together, just in different spaces.