The annual neighborhood meet and greet.

I strongly dislike Halloween. The celebration of death and gross things makes the back of my neck tingle. Early on in our parenting we were faced with the decision, do we or do we not take our kids trick or treating. I had many fond memories of growing up in the country and us 3 neighborhood kids visiting all our neighbors and being rewarded with delicious goodies. Now many years later we are raising our children in that same setting. We decided that we would not celebrate the holiday, but would still participate in trick or treating. We don't allow scary costumes, and have went over the reasons of why several times. Last night the evening started out with a lovely dinner cooked by my lovely Mom, with friends and family there to enjoy it. My husband and I escorted Nancy Drew, a tiger and a princess on the hay ride, that my girls helped my Dad prepare. It was beautiful, decked out in lights and all....cause ya know, we don't have street lamps in the country ;-) As he drove them from house to house (and picked up a few passengers on the way) Mike and I got to walk around the neighborhood with our good friends. We got to see neighbors that we only see once a year. Found out that one had passed away yesterday, one was battling a life threatening illness, and one had just moved in. It was a time to create community, something that is seriously lacking today. It was a very nice evening.  As I lay in bed replaying the events of the day, I couldn't find anything questionable or evil with how it all played out, and my children have great memories with their Grandparents that they can look back on. We could be totally wrong in our decision....I am easily wooed by chocolate and peanut butter you know, but I fear that if we didn't let our kids participate they would get the wrong message. I would have shared some awesome pictures, but of course the battery in my camera was exhausted. Who knew you had to charge such a thing? ;-)