Saturday, October 26, 2013

When 'the point' is fun

Halloween is not my favorite. Not for overly spiritual reasons, but simply because I like to do things that matter. Frankly, I am somewhat obsessed with searching for meaning (ahem, overthinking). For a long time Halloween has just seemed like a whole lot of hoopla--wasted time and money for no reason.
 
When confessing my disdain for the holiday last year, several people pointed out that there is actually much to celebrate about Halloween--the creativity, the laughter, the block parties and opportunities to knock on doors in your neighborhood. My children love to dress up and trick or treat. And I am in a season of choosing my battles and lightening up.
 
This afternoon our community had a 'zombiethon' fun run. The premise of the 5k was for people to participate either as runners or as zombies who chased them. You can imagine which role my children begged to volunteer for...
 
 I confess I gulped hard at making my 'sweet babies' dirty little ghouls...but it was all in light hearted good fun and once we got on the race course they came alive.
 
 
 Lying in wait to snatch flag football flags from runners' belts was truly a nine year old's dream. (times three) My kiddos had a blast!
 And faces like these reminded me that sometimes the 'point' is simply to laugh and have fun.

2 comments:

Jenny said...

What a SUPER FUN day! It looks like the kids had a BLAST!!!

Deidre said...

Oh, that WOULD be a 9 year old's dream. How fun!

I used to be the same way about Halloween. Our first Halloween as a married couple, we turned out all the lights and played cards by flashlight. I was taking a stand so when we had children, we would already have our plan in place to boycott it. Ahhhh ... I had to lighten up! My girls have been trick-or-treating since my oldest was 5 and they have the most fun with their friends in the neighborhood. I think it all comes back to how we approach it and focusing on what is true in our hearts.