Happy Halloween...

Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year.

I know, it's not a REAL holiday, but then again, it kinda is.

Parents spend time with their kids.

Laughing and playing make-believe and just enjoying being together.

Carving pumpkins, dressing up,
watching It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

At our house, on Halloween night, we got dressed in our costumes as soon as we got home from school.

Then we gathered around the kitchen table with our pumpkin.

Mom only got one, but it was HUGE.

When we were little she would cut the top off, then hand us all a big spoon.

We would all dig in and start scooping.

Happily, we dug out handfuls of seeds covered in gooey slime, chunks of pumpkin flesh.

Next came the argument, there always was one, about who got to draw the face.

And, who got to cut it out.

My older brother usually got this honor... he WAS the oldest of the 4 of us.

Once the face was drawn, cut out and the candle was lit... 

Our Great Pumpkin took up residence on the front porch, keeping watch over the street as the sun went down, the street lights came on and the Ghosts and Goblins and Power Rangers and Cinderellas came out of their homes and swarmed into the night.

Dinner was spaghetti. 

Nearly every year it was spaghetti.

Easy to make, quick to eat and good fuel for trekking through the neighborhood, lugging a pillowcase full of treats.

And filling enough to make eating too much candy uncomfortable when we got home.

Candy had to be checked, sorted and traded before heading off to bed, visions of Jack-o-lanterns, ghouls and strobe lights in our heads.

And plans for what we would be next year already in the works.

I still make spaghetti for dinner on Halloween.

And, we still carve our pumpkins before the kids head out to gather their treats.

Checking and sorting and trading still takes place, only now it's my kids doing it, as I look on and remember the nights of my childhood with my brothers and sister...

And how our family came together for one night of the year, not because we had to, but because, candy was involved!