Although there are plenty of good ones, Halloween is my favorite celebration of the year. I don’t have to bake or cook, and I get to dress up in costume to host the continual parade of the frightening to adorable marching up to my house to get candy, that again, I didn’t have to bake or cook.
One of my favorite Halloween experiences was when I took my kids trick-or-treating in St. Johns. Some friends of mine have a gorgeous Victorian-style home there, which on Halloween was transformed into a terrifying haunted house with just a bit of imagination and the full moon shadows from barren trees. When the kids walked down the pathway to the door, a “severed” head dropped from a rope strung from the third floor window through the trees directly in their path. Did it make me a bad mother to laugh so hard at my children dropping their goody bags and running in fright? Perhaps, but they love the holiday as much as I do so no scaring took place. Although, I did notice that any other time during the year when we would visit those friends, even during the day, my kids would always glance to the tree canopy before walking that pathway to the door; I’m pretty sure they would today as adults.
There’s lots of fun and not so frightening activities in your community for the kids. In Holbrook it’s the annual Spooktacular at the Navajo County Fairgrounds with lots of free candy, games and food, and of course Halloween House on Main Street in Joseph City is not to be missed. It’s the one day a year when we get to be scared for the fun of it, so take the kids out and make some memories. But watch out, you never know what may be lurking in the dark on the pathway to the door.
