Life, Death and the Great Pumpkin

This afternoon we leave town to drive four hours to my step-mother-in-law's funeral. While not unexpected, her death does throw our family into some turmoil, unfortunately. I am praying for grace and wisdom in my communication with our family, and for my father-in-law with his wife's family as well.

I am exhausted. Halloween is fun, but whew!! I am glad it's over. We added a new Halloween holiday ritual this year, one that I learned about from a friend - a visit from the Great Pumpkin. After we were done trick-or-treating last night, I allowed my children to pick a few pieces of candy from their trick-or-treat bags to save. After putting those into a separate bag, they left their big loot-bags on the table in anticipation of a visit from the Great Pumpkin - who came in the night, took the candy, and left small gifts in their place.

My older daughter transparently understood what I was doing, and the younger one obviously chose to just accept the story of the Great Pumpkin without questioning, and they were both surprisingly happy to give up almost all their candy. They now have enough candy to have a piece in their lunch for a few days and a couple of treats, and they each got a long-desired DVD from the Great Pumpkin. It was definitely a success!

Now the Great Pumpkin really has to sneak that candy out to the garbage can before she is tempted to eat it herself...

Also - if you are considering trying this holiday ritual in your family, my friend informs me that the Great Pumpkin is very casual, and doesn't always come on Halloween night - sometimes you have to leave the candy out for a few nights before she/he comes to your house (leaving plenty of time for last minute shopping...).