Halloween This Year

It's not secret to anyone who knows me well that I love Halloween. To me (and I have always lived in Texas) it symbolizes the start of Fall, and the beginning of cooler weather that usually stays cool. It means that I get to decorate my house with one of my favorite colors orange and that we get to take a family trip to the pumpkin patch for pictures/the picking out of the perfect pumpkin. Below is our very first Mezger Family pumpkin and yes I made our dog Boss pose with it.

I also really like to dress up in costume. Every year in college my mom made me a costume to wear. In order I was a pig, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, a 50's girl with poodle skirt, and Larry Boy from Veggie Tales. So it should come as no surprise that when we found out we were pregnant with Bailey I was so excited that her birthday was in September because that meant we got to dress her up her first year. That first year we were pirates. Bailey was going to a parrot, but the day before Halloween the costume we were going to borrow fell through.

Last year as you might remember a group of our friends got together and did the Wizard of Oz.

So after a year of thinking about the perfect costume (yes, Katie Foshea I know you are laughing) we have decided to go as Sesame Street characters. Bailey as Elmo, Luke as Oscar the Grouch, and myself as Cookie Monster. We bought Bailey and Luke's costumes, but my extremely talented mom is again making my costume. Pictures to come.

Something fun that we have decided to start this year is trick-or-treating for can goods. This is something I did every year in college with my church, and I really like the idea of having something to take the focus off of candy. While Bailey is young we plan on trick-or-treating for can goods the week of Halloween, and still get candy the night of. It will also give Bailey a chance to wear her Halloween costume more than once. Basically, Luke and I have the desire to make feeding the hungry a focus for our family while teaching empathy and service to others. As defined by Wikipedia empathy is the ability to share and understand another's emotions and feelings, and it is often characterized as the ability to "put oneself into another's shoes". Since unless something changes drastically for us Bailey will never know what it feels like to go hungry. We thought that collecting can goods for the local food bank combined with serving food in a shelter will atleast create an awareness of the hungry. For the future, we are also looking for a family mission trip with the focus of helping the hungry to get a view of what this looks like globally. My friend Chelsie liked the idea and is going to do it with us, so we will let you know how it goes!

Lastly, I thought I would share a poem that was found in my MOPS newsletter last year that I really liked. It's something that we plan on incorporating while carving our pumpkin in the years to come.

The Pumpkin Gospel

My big round pumpkin shows me God gives us a clean heart.

He will forgive our mess-ups. He offers a new start.

The slime that fills the pumpkin, all stringy slippery goo,

reminds me of my insides before God makes me new.

When He says "I forgive," I smile a great big grin.

Come look into my pumpkin: he is all clean inside.

And outside he is wearing a smile that's big and wide.

God's love is like a candle that shines from inside out.

It's beaming deep within me, and so I now can shout.

To glow like my big pumpkin and have a nice clean heart,

ask God to please forgive you. You'll have a brand new start.

By Mary Manz Simon

http://www.marymanzsimon.com/