Un-Halloween

We're just not into Halloween.  Many reasons.  Allergies, beliefs, stuff...  But, we love an excuse to have a special night!  So this year for our Un-Halloween we got us a "can't be beat" frozen pizza, "plop it on the pan" cookie dough, caramel dip and apples, and our favorite Halloweenish movie:  "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken", with Don Knotts.  It doesn't get much better than that, unless you consider that we also...

...turned off the lights, whispered when the doorbell rang (only once!), ate  by the light of the TV and then had a serious (is there any other kind?) Super Mario Kart race.  My two loves and me.  Perfect night!

One Parent Home: When the Math of a Countdown Won't Work

I'm am a total sucker for holiday traditions.  Love them!  Some of my favorite have always been countdowns.  You know...countdown to Christmas, countdown to Resurrection Day, countdown to whatever you feel like counting down to.  I'm seeing lots of countdowns lately.

Problem comes when many of those very important, countable days, that usually involve a specific something (to count the day as part of the countdown), are missing the kids.  When it first happened, my brain couldn't figure out what to do!  It seemed like this giant, insurmountable, horrible (and believe me, it is horrible!) loss.  How could we possibly celebrate Advent with holes in it?!

Here's the thing.  I still don't have the perfect answer, but I have managed to figure out a few things:  that it's not the end of the world; some is always better than none; and most importantly, that God is bigger than all of it.  That about covers it!  Oh.  And amazingly, new traditions are just as fun as old ones!