I won't lie; I'm glad Halloween is over.

I don't celebrate Halloween. To be honest, it's not really a holiday I've ever gotten that much into. Sure, I've gone trick-or-treating a few times and I've been to a haunted house or two. On occasion, I've worn a costume and have gone to a Halloween party but it just does not interest me all that much. Part of it is being married to John, I'm sure. He doesn't celebrate Halloween and, with his religious beliefs, wants nothing to do with it. But even without that, unless I had married a die hard Halloween fanatic, I probably still would not be all that much into Halloween. First of all, I'm not that into horror movies and scary stuff. I don't choose to watch them and I definitely don't own any. Second, I'm not into the being sexy and strutting myself downtown thing. Third, I think the money that is charged for costumes is insane and I think the time and money that goes into getting ready for a night of mayhem is a little excessive. All this for some candy? Why not go to the store the next day and get it for half off? Oh, it's FREE...that's why... So what? You can't pick the candy you get and most people will buy the cheap garbage anyway and give that to you, that nasty old peanut butter taffy stuff that's in black or orange paper. And if you're too old to be out trick-or-treating, you won't get candy anyway!

I guess, I just don't see the point of it. I love fall. I think pumpkins rock and the weather is beautiful and the colors and smells the best of any season. But, I can have all of that without celebrating Halloween. Granted, Natalie would look absolutely adorable in a costume but, what's the point? Most years, (especially in Wisconsin), it's freaking COLD! I remember a couple of years going out in the SNOW! One year, I was especially blessed to be delivering papers on Halloween and since back then Halloween fell AFTER the change to standard time, I was out in the dark and in the rain. Not a fun night, that's for sure though I did get a couple of pieces of candy for my troubles. Why not just dress your kid up in cute costumes for pictures instead? In fact, there are studios in Korea that do just that! You can dress your little girl up in princess costumes (Snow White especially is quite popular here due to the dark hair) and get their pictures taken. Perfect. And you won't even have to try to wrestle a whole bunch of bad-for-them candy from them later on. We try to teach them every other night of the year that all things should be in moderation but let them go crazy on one night? Doesn't make much sense.

I don't know, it's a day that just takes over the entire month of October. And yet, when it's over and done and November rolls around, not much is said about Thanksgiving until it's pretty much right on top of us and then, it's usually eclipsed by Christmas (which I won't go into right now). Let's think about this for a minute. A month that contains a holiday that's about being thankful is boxed in by two months that really have more to do with asking for things than about anything else (and do not go there about Jesus being the reason for the Christmas season because He's not). And those months with their holidays are glorified while Thanksgiving is barely mentioned except in terms of dinner, Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade (complete with Santa riding in at the end), Black Friday, and maybe pilgrims if you have a child in elementary school.

I have wondered about Thanksgiving at times, wondered if it is part of one of the Biblical holidays known to us as the Feast of Tabernacles. I have wondered if it was sort of separated from that and made into it's own American holiday due to the one that was celebrated here between the pilgrims and the natives. I don't know. For me, since we don't celebrate Christmas and Thanksgiving is considered more of an American holiday since it doesn't have the pagan origins that other holidays do, Thanksgiving is the big family holiday for us. And Thanksgiving is the time to remember those blessings that we have received during the last year.

So, let's take this month to remember our blessings and not be so quick to shut it aside for the two holidays on either side of it. It's those blessings that make life worth living.