Tradition!

My two youngest sisters are both doing Fiddler on the Roof with their at the end of the month - Lydia is playing Hodel, the middle sister, and Sophie is playing Grandma Tzeidel - so I have been hearing, and singing, the "Tradition!" song a lot these past few months! And with Easter tomorrow, I've been thinking about traditions, particularly for holidays, a good bit lately.

                                                  "Tradition! Tradition....Tradition."

For Saturday night before Easter, I am actually doing much better than normal, organization-wise! My house is mostly clean (we'll probably do a last minute pick up before bed). I have everyone's church clothes all laid out, with just a few socks to wash. Breakfast is already made and I just need to set the coffee pot to go off in the morning. I had all the kids' Easter baskets already bought and I filled them this afternoon while they napped! With just one last minute trip to Wal-Mart to buy Joseph some new dress shoes, since we discovered last minute that his don't fit anymore, we were ready. But when we got home I discovered the one thing I'd forgotten: the dye kit. I had hard-boiled the eggs but now I had nothing to dye them with. Normally, this would have sent me into a mild panic and rushing back to the grocery store for another last minute trip. I don't usually handle having my plans interrupted very well. ;-) (Yes, oldest child...what can I say?) But then I realized something. I don't HAVE to dye eggs this year.

Sounds silly, right? Of course I don't HAVE to. But you see, I come from a very tradition-driven family. We're not very organized, but we have LOTS of traditions. Like girls getting their ears pierced on their 13th birthday. Or boys going on a camping trip to Alaska with their dad and grandfather. Or my dad bringing ALL of the girls in his family chocolates on Valentine's Day (even since I've been married!;-)We had Easter baskets and Christmas stockings every year, even if they were thrown together at the very last minute. Every Good Friday we all go on a little day sightseeing trip as a family and usually a hike. And I love all of our traditions, so I've tried really hard to carry them all on with my own kids. But sometimes that can be a little overwhelming! Especially when you add in Robert's family's traditions too. And then you try to instigate your OWN new family traditions and...whew! Tradition overload!

I think traditions are nice as long as they are serving you, and not the other way around. When the tradition itself becomes more burden than blessing, it's time to let it go - at least for the moment! The great thing about holidays is that they are annual - there is always next year! There's something very freeing about realizing that you don't have to do it all...or all at once. Last fall we missed the State Fair AND the Balloon Fiesta, and I was a little bit sad until I realized - oh wait, we can always go next year! And the same is true of coloring Easter eggs with my kids. Is it fun? Absolutely! Would they get a kick out of it? Definitely! But Easter will happen next year, and we can always do it then.

Unless of course Jesus comes back before...in which case, I'm pretty sure whatever we're doing for Easter in heaven will be TONS more awesome that coloring eggs. ;-)

God bless you all tomorrow on this most joyful of all days - HE IS RISEN!!

"Death could not keep its prey, Jesus my Savior,
He tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord:
Up from the grave He arose
with a mighty triumph o'er His foes,
He arose a victor from the dark domain
And He lives forever, with his saints to reign:
He arose, He arose, Hallelujah, Christ arose!"

Halloween?

It's October, which means you can't go anywhere without being accosted by all manner of creepy-looking paraphernalia: skeletons, ghosts, vampires, tombstones, leering pumpkins, and *shudder* spiders, among other things. Some people (ahem...our neighbors) have even gone so far as to start decorating their houses with "Halloween lights," a garish orange parody of the Christmas lights I love so much. I hate taking my children to the store during this month because I don't want them too see all the horrible decorations and costumes. However, I am kind of conflicted about Halloween as a whole.

Growing up, my family never celebrated Halloween. No costumes, no trick or treating, no parties. Usually my mom would buy a bag of candy, just in case any neighbor kids stopped by (which, living in the East Mountains, they usually didn't!) and let us eat a couple of pieces. Once or twice we went to "Fall Carnivals" thrown at churches, and I seem to remember one where we all dressed up as Bible characters. (I must have been about 6 because I remember I wore an old pillowcase and was Miriam and my brother Isaac was Moses and Mom put him in a basket.) Usually we celebrated "Reformation Day" instead, because as any good homeschooling kid knows, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses of protest against the Catholic church to the door of the church in Wittenburg on October 31, 1517.

I understand the reasons why my parents chose not to celebrate Halloween, and I respected them, even though I felt (and still feel) that it was highly unfair that Satan had stolen the holiday of dress up and candy, two of my favorite things! Once I hit my twenties, my sister and I dressed up in our homemade Renaissance costumes and went out with friends to dinner on Halloween a few times. But now that I have kids who are old enough to actually notice, Halloween has become an issue I have to deal with.

My husband came from a Christian, Bible-believing family who had a different approach to Halloween. Their kids always dressed up and went trick-or-treating. For the first few years we had kids, we'd talk about what we believed about Halloween, but we never really had to decide because they were too little to really do anything. We dressed them in their Batman and Superman and Pooh bear pajamas, just because it was cute, and we passed out candy to the neighbor kids. But this year they are getting older and we still haven't decided on a strong conviction one way or the other.

I believe that there are many aspects of Halloween that definitely ARE wrong and demonic. I don't approve of all the ugly and scary things, simply because I don't think they are edifying or glorifying to God, and I wouldn't let my kids dress up like them or decorate our house with them. But I admit I don't see anything inherently wrong with dressing up in costumes. Or eating candy! I don't want my kids to go trick-or-treating because I don't feel like it's safe, and somehow it seems rude to me to ask other people for candy! Especially because they would certainly never be allowed to "trick" someone who doesn't give it to them!

This year Robert decided we should go to the "trunk or treat" event that's being held at a nearby church. And I am making all the costumes. Gabriella's favorite movie is Cinderella, and the boys like it a lot too, so we are all going to be characters from Cinderella. Gabriella will be Cinderella, of course, and I have already started working on her dress. Elora will be one of the mice, and Joseph will be Prince Charming, and James will be Bruno, the dog (because honestly, that is who James likes best! ;-) And if I get around to it, I will be the fairy godmother and Robert will be the Grand Duke.

 I love sewing costumes, and I am really excited about making them for my kids. As for the whole "Halloween Issue," we may just have to take it on a year-by-year basis. Ultimately we will do whatever Robert thinks is best, because he's the boss of this house! ;-) There is no specific Bible verse that says whether or not to celebrate Halloween...but there is one that says "wives, submit to your husbands." And I trust him to make a good decision because I know he listens to The Boss.

What about you? Do you celebrate Halloween? Why or why not?