Our First Halloween!!!

It's almost Halloween!  This will be the girls' first Halloween because they don't celebrate it in Australia.  I really don't know why because it is the only holiday in the whole year that is actually FUN!  Easter, Christmas, Valentine's Day--really, they all suck.  Big heavy meals, forced visits with family, tensions running high, not to mention the buying of crap just to buy something.  Halloween is all about being crazy and silly, stepping out of your comfort zone and just having fun!  The inclusion of heaps of lollies, candy and sweets doesn't hurt either! 

And it's not an expensive holiday--growing up we almost always made our costumes out of old clothes, cardboard boxes and our imagination.  We used grocery bags or pillow cases to collect our loot.  This year, I made a witch costume for me--how appropriate, you say, the girls won't even think you look any different--and Hubby is going to be a vampire.  The girls are set on being princesses despite my pleas to be a big fuzzy pumpkin or a poky little giraffe or cute ladybug.  Remember, they are new to this game and don't really get the whole costume thing.  We also bought a few pumpkins--$3 each here, where I am sure they were charging $25 at Wollies last year???--and carved out scary faces and put them out on the front step. 

Now, I know, what about all this candy?  With childhood obesity emerging as a pandemic, and all the other fat-related issues making headlines, how can we endorse a whole holdiay devoted to collecting and eating chocolate and sugar?  Because it is FUN!  And because I am pretty sure obesity doesn't occur due to ONE day of eating sweets.  How about the weekly take away, the chocolate bribes to tidy up the toys, the driving to school instead of walking and all the other unhealthy day to day habits?  It's an entire lifestyle that creates an obese family, not one day.  Please keep in mind, I am saying this while finishing off a chocolate Timbit that we bought for the girls after our trail walk this morning--so no soapbox here.

And Halloween is just SO MUCH FUN!  Happy trick-or-treating everyone!!!!