Holy Halloween!

Halloween is on Sunday this year, which presented our family with a dilemma.  We love to carve pumpkins and trick-or-treat, but we also feel it's really important to keep the Sabbath holy by drawing closer to God and inviting others to do the same.

After a lot of discussion, our family decided to try celebrating this holiday in a holy way.  For example, we agreed to carve cheerful pumpkins, not scary ones.

Joy took that idea one step further by carving an image of Angel Moroni, blowing his trumpet to proclaim the Gospel and welcome Jesus Christ at His Second Coming.

We also agreed that the kids could go trick-or-treating if they wanted to, but any treats they collected tonight would be donated to military personnel serving overseas. 

The three older kids opted to go trick-or-treating for charity this evening.  Joy never got around to making the Ahsoka costume she envisioned at the beginning of October, so at the last minute she dressed up as Rusnak, a Jedi padawan in a story I once made up to tell the kids in the car.  Joy's pillows fell off after the second house she visited, so she brought them home and went trick-or-treating as "The nice big sister who made her brothers' costumes."

While Daddy took kids trick-or-treating, I stayed home to hand out treats and connect with our neighbors.  I dressed as an angel, and played the Tabernacle choir full blast through our open windows.  I didn't realize that the lock-screen image of Jesus on Daddy's computer was peeking over my shoulder, but I suppose that was a fitting addition to the whole scene.

Todd didn't feel like trick-or-treating for candy he couldn't eat, so he stayed on the porch with me and read fun books about being a good friend on Halloween.  After we gave out our last treat and turned off our lights, I reflected that this has been my favorite Halloween ever.  I've always loved the creativity and generosity of this holiday, and celebrating it with a focus on serving and uplifting others made me feel even happier this year.

Happy Holy Halloween!