All Hallow's Eve? Or Devil's Day?

I intended to write this article a couple of days ago, but hey, better late than never!

I've had mixed and unmixed feelings about the holiday labeled Halloween for years.  I've never done much research on it until now though.  Growing up in a strict conservative home with an abhorrence of holidays in general and Halloween in particular, I absorbed a distaste for this interesting celebration that I'm still trying to wash out of my mouth.  I was told, and read articles to the effect of how it's a pagan, evil, devil's day that celebrates death and gore and ghosts, and certainly my neighbors' yard decorations lent credence to the tale!  Demons and zombies and witches and ghosties and things that went bump in the night prevailed on all sides, and made shopping a nightmare especially with littles who noticed and were scared.  We even declined going to what would have been a gloriously fun costume party with wonderful people we've known for years because it was labeled a "halloween party," and as Christians we wished not to partake in anything that smelled of the Dark Side.  2 Corinthians 6:17 says "Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you..."  

I did not have to truly address the issue of Halloween until my girls became of age to go trick or treating.  This year our Bella turned two, the perfect age to look cute and innocent and con all the neighbors into giving away all their candy.  My husband and I still had mixed feelings on the subject, but she was innocent of any knowledge of evil and we were inclined to let the holiday be about sweets and meeting people and dressing up, and let go of our prejudices at least a little.  Then a wise person said to me just beforehand,

"The holiday is either about what it is, or what it was.  If you don't celebrate Halloween because of pagan origins, then neither should you celebrate Christmas because that holiday also is of pagan origin!"

That was when everything clicked together for me.  Our Lord is a God of redemption, and I have learned to embrace Christmas as a joyful celebration of His birth, of love and peace and giving and sharing.  Why not Halloween as well?  Perhaps there are still pockets of witches here and there who sacrifice goats at midnight on October 31st, but in our society at large and generally it's all about fun and costumes and candy.  Except for said witches, and nerds, people have forgotten about where it came from and are busy celebrating what it is today.

Then, this morning, I decided to actually do a bit of reading up on the origins of Halloween as we know it today.  And guess what I discovered?  After being taught all my life that it's an evil Devil's holiday, I actually found that it's a Christian holiday with no real ties to paganism, and any Satanish overtures are coincidental and actually mostly a commercialization push for selling scary shit in the stores for expensive prices, and as a way to indulge people's innate fascination for the gross and disgusting.  Here is the beginning of Wikipedia's article on the subject:

"Halloween or Hallowe'en (a contraction of All Hallows' Evening),^[5] also known as Allhalloween,^[6] All Hallows' Eve,^[7] or All Saints' Eve,^[8] is a celebration observed in a number of countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. It begins the three-day observance of Allhallowtide,^[9] the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints(hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed.^[10][11]

It is widely believed that many Halloween traditions originated from ancient Celtic harvest festivals, particularly the Gaelic festival Samhain; that such festivals may have had pagan roots; and that Samhain itself was Christianized as Halloween by the early Church.^{[1][7][12][13][14][15]} Some believe, however, that Halloween began solely as a Christian holiday, separate from ancient festivals like Samhain.^{[1][16][17][18][19]}

Halloween activities include trick-or-treating (or the related guising), attending Halloween costume parties, carving pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, divination games, playing pranks, visiting haunted attractions, telling scary stories, and watching horror films. In many parts of the world, the Christian religious observances of All Hallows' Eve, including attending church services and lighting candles on the graves of the dead, remain popular,^[20][21][22] although elsewhere it is a more commercial and secular celebration.^[23][24][25] Some Christians historically abstained from meat on All Hallows' Eve, a tradition reflected in the eating of certain vegetarian foods on this vigil day, including apples, potato pancakes, and soul cakes."

It makes perfect sense for me, as a Christian, to remember and honor the dead.  My entire religion is

Princess Anna!

based on remembering the death of my Redeemer on a hideous Cross, even drinking wine as a symbol of the blood He shed for me to cleanse me of my sins.  The Bible talks over and over about our ancestors, who went before us and are looking down on us from heaven.  The heroes of the faith; departed family members; those who have run and finished the race and fought the good fight.

Remember, the devil cannot create anything new.  He can only corrupt what is pure and good.  Every form of evil is a mere corruption of what was originally good in the eyes of God.  Let's take back any vestige of Halloween that might be linked to evil, and redeem it for Christ.  In everything we do and say, let's honor the Lord Jesus!  I will dress up with zeal, participate in the joy of my children meeting the neighbors and receiving candy, and maybe incorporate something having to do with remembering family who have passed on.

Isabella had so much fun trick or treating.  In fact, she enjoyed meeting people's pets more than the people themselves!  Folks here would sit with their doors open and their glass storm doors closed, a bowl of candy in hand waiting for the trick or treaters.  Bella would see a doggie or kitty peering through the glass, and would run squealing up the sidewalk.  "Hi doggy!  Hi kitty!  How are you?" she would say.  When the human of the household opened the door, her eyes would get big and she'd get very quiet.  We got her to say "trick or treat!" once or twice, but mostly she'd silently accept the candy and be ready to go on to the next place.  I think it was even more fun for the parents than for the kiddos.  Our girls are so darn cute!!!

Peace.

Being silly

Our first Halloween!

Checking out the loot

  

My Bella-Bug!

Miranda Nichole Photography

My Isabella Song.  She is growing by leaps and bounds these days!  She chose a Princess Anna costume for our Harvest Party at church (she hasn't seen Frozen yet, she just thought it was pretty!)  She's quickly adjusted to living in Texas.  I think her two favorite things are our spacious house she can run circles in to her heart's content, and the fact the Grandma Barbara lives across the street from us.  At least two or three times a day she asks to "go to Grandma's house" and takes off running, and I am teaching her to look both ways for cars.  She loves talking on the phone--and the phone can be any phone shaped object, from the TV remotes to a loose power strip!

She loves helping Daddy work on the house.  She brings him tools, and tries to use tools to imitate him.  One of her favorite toys is an old assembled doorknob, and she patiently pokes at it with a screwdriver, trying to learn the ways of doorknobs.  She helps me also, "cleaning" with our little vacuum cleaner or trying to sweep. Elizabeth is her special joy.  When Bella hears Lizzy's coos in the morning, she runs to her bed calling "Baby's awake!"  The other day she asked for shoes because  "Feet cold, mama."  When I finished putting her shoes and socks on, she said, "Baby's feet cold too!  Shoes?"  wanting me to make sure her sister's feet were also warm.  The other day we were shopping and I did my usual routine of finding a shopping cart in the parking lot, extracting first one baby from a car seat and then the other and placing them in the cart.  Bella was up front this time and Lizzy was sitting in the back.  As I walked away from the car towards the store, Bella looks all concerned and says "Where's Baby?!!"  "She's right here, sweetie," I replied, and she twisted around to look back and said "Oh!" with a smile.  She just wanted to make sure I didn't forget her baby sister.  What a thoughtful little person!

We haven't been able to watch action movies with Bella around for a while, because she gets scared.  I have to reassure her that "it's not real, honey, it's just a movie."  Now we can't watch sitcoms any more either.  We've been going through the show Friends again, and they use the phrase "O my God!" on it a lot.  Now that is an exclamation TJ and I have agreed never to use.  It is a disrespectful use of God's name.  We actually don't mind a lot of swear words when used correctly--they express passion and the seriousness of whatever you're saying (there's a whole different blog post right there!)  But using any of God's names incorrectly is a no-no for us.  Anyway, four different times now Bella has exclaimed in her sweet little voice, "Oh my God!!!" The only place I think of where she would have heard it is on Friends.  And she's too little to understand that there's certain words she shouldn't say!  It's adorably cute, but shouldn't be encouraged.  Sweet, innocent child!  You are already learning the ways of the world. :-(

Another thing my two year old has started to do recently is to bargain with me.  It is hilarious, and keeps me in stitches!  I bought a package of cookies when I was shopping, and when I put it into the cart Bella asked for a cookie.  "We have to pay for them first, sweetie.  Then you can have one," I told her. 
     She held up one finger and pleaded, "Just one?  Please mama, just one?" 
     Needless to say, she got her cookie.  I know I'll have to be firm in the future, but the first time was just too cute!  Child, you slay me with your big blue eyes and blond curls and dazzling smile.  It's easy to say No when you whine, but once you learn to ask nicely always, the world will be at your service!

Anyway, this post is all about my firstborn, my eldest, our Sweet-pea.  It's a beautiful chilly Texas morning and time for my coffee!

Hey Y'all!

Miranda Nichole Photography

Greetings from the Lone Star State, the second largest state in the Union, the land of cattle, horses, and the ranches to keep them in, the land of friendly people who think it's their business to say hi and wave to everyone they meet, and where you can walk into the neighbor's house and use the shower if you need to.  "Come in y'all, the door's unlocked!  Set yourself down and have a cup of coffee.  How's everything now?"

It's been one solid week of Texas living for us, and we are completely hooked.  It's even better here than we hoped for!  Thirty years of living in California, and one week of living in Texas.....and we feel like we fit in here so much better.  It was like entering a time warp--first of all the 2 hour time difference, and secondly the fact that everyone has TIME.  It feels like we left the busyness of California behind us, and people actually have time here for the things that really matter--friends, family, and God.  I've never seen so many churches before in my life!

I have already seen strange and wonderful things in this strange and wonderful land.

The cashier at Walmart not only bags my stuff, but also places it in the cart for me and makes small talk while they do it.

At Lowe's I was struggling handling two tired and fussy babies while trying to find some items for TJ.  I had FOUR Lowe's employees jump to help me--one went and found my items, one checked them out, one carried the items to the car for me, and a fourth carried my baby.

Eating out at a local Mexican restaurant, the people at the table next to us were so nice and friendly I thought TJ had met them already but he hadn't.  Just strangers chatting to us about everything because they were nice and being neighborly.

Walking to the local park 11 blocks away, I can walk with the girls in the stroller down the city street and the two or three people who pass me always wave and smile.  We stopped to visit with a lady and her little boy playing in the front yard.  Our girls fit right in!  Elizabeth smiles and coos at everyone, and Bella always has to wave and say in her sweet little voice, "Hello!  How are you?"

Our family here has been amazing and supportive.  The church helped us unload our truck and trailer in about thirty minutes.  We've had folks bring us food or take us to dinner almost every night, which is helpful as my kitchen at our house is gutted and it will be a while before it's fully functional.  TJ has been working very hard on getting one bathroom finished so we can perform sanitary functions at home instead of having to go across the street to Grandma Barbara's every time.  She has been so kind to let us use her house when we need to, and it's fun having neighbors across the street like that.  (My cousins Emerald and Amy live there too but they are working most of the time so we only get to see them on weekends.)

Miranda Nichole Photography

Oh, and our house.  Our wonderful, glorious house and land.  What a blessing God has blessed us with!!!  It's a four bedroom, two bathroom house with high ceilings that make it look even bigger than it really is.  We like spaciousness, and getting rid of most of our stuff helps it look even more spacious because there isn't much in the rooms.  It needs a lot of work, but we are having way too much fun customizing it to be just how we like it.  It's going to be beautiful outside and inside when we're done with it!  I am especially enjoying the fact that we get to benefit from and enjoy TJ's handiwork.  He has done so much good work in the past both with his company and the rentals we lived in, and we always had to walk away from it when he was finished and didn't get to enjoy it.  So it's really fun for me to see the tile he put in and the floors he installed and the mudding of the walls he does so well.   He is building me and the girls a lovely home and we appreciate him so much!  I love my man and the girls sure love their daddy.

I am hoping to be more faithful with updating my blog in the future.  We're pretty much settled in now and the girls are my full time job.  As our routine develops we'll see how much actual time I have for writing. 

See y'all later!  Come by and visit if you ever come through the Amarillo/Canyon area.

One Man's Trash....

Everything is going pretty smoothly around here.  The Greers are so ready to hit the road that we feel like Texans already, from our cowboy hats to our jeans and boots!  Boxes are mostly packed, emotions are excited, job offers  have been pouring in, our families are loving and supportive even though they'll miss us (so they claim).

Elizabeth is very proud of her
newly acquired climbing ability!

Bella helping out at the yard sale

Two Saturdays in a row have seen our front yard littered with our worldly goods for sale.  It's amazing how much STUFF one can accumulate in thirty years!  Really, it's 58 years because of our combined ages.  I had the lion's share of the hoard though--TJ left home four years ago with only the stuff that fit in the backseat of his little Honda Accord, whereas when I moved in with him it took about six trailer loads to transfer my STUFF to our apartment.  Plus all the STUFF we collected in three years of marriage.  It feels so good getting rid of STUFF!  It's cleansing, like taking a shower.  We've pretty much sold everything but our oldest child.  It's amazing that people will pay actual real money for STUFF like that!  I need to revamp my mind and get out of the mentality that "someday I might use this so I should keep it and store it and love it and give it a name and not let it be pried out of my cold dead fingers..."

Hats and sticks--best childhood ever!

STUFF is so temporary.  It really doesn't matter at all in the long run--it's only real value is it's immediate usefulness.  I hope my children grow up learning not to be emotionally attached to STUFF  in an unhealthy way.  It's sad when people are hoarders--it shows a lack of love and fulfillment in other areas of their lives.

I find that the older I get, the less sentimental I become.  I honestly don't care if my great-great grandmother used that hideous chartreuse glass bowl--I don't want the thing in my kitchen.  My wedding shoes were awful and killed my feet with blisters and almost caused a twisted ankle--into the yard sale they went (nobody bought them and they ended up in the kids' costume chest because Bella loves clomping about in mommy's shoes!)  Knickknacks and glass items passed down to me from remote ancestors--I'm sorry ancestors, but you're going to have to turn over in your graves because I'm not keeping them around.  As TJ says, "They aren't our memories--so why keep them?"

Hiding among and climbing over the packed moving boxes
is Bella's latest hobby.

 Bella just came in with her bleached blonde hair in disarray, her monkey pajamas, and her sleepy morning smile on her face.  I love my darlings so much!  The other day we were having dinner at a friend's house and their little boy asked his mother, "Can I ask Bella's mommy if she can have a cookie?"  I realized that wow, this is how other kids see me now--as "Bella's mommy."  I am incredibly privileged to hold that title!  In this crazy dangerous world with shootings and fires and hurricanes all around us I want to hold my babies so tightly and never let them go!  But they are in God's keeping and I will cherish every precious moment that I have with them.

Isabella Song

Last Friday was our sweet little daughter's birthday--our firstborn, the one who blessed us with her presence from the beginning of our marriage.  I still can't believe she is officially two years old already!  I am the only one who has real memories of her beyond her birthday, and in my mommy heart she's about two years six months old.  I remember how she kicked and squiggled inside me, how she would respond to our voices, and dance to loud music.  Two years ago I was weeping over my tiny baby in the NICU unit at the hospital, crying for joy over my daughter, pain at seeing all the tiny wires and needles in her delicate little body, and in frustration trying to get her to eat enough so she could come HOME.

Well, she's been part of our family for two years now and we can't imagine life without her smile, laughter, little feet running about the house and yard, and sober observations in her rapidly expanding vocabulary.  TJ and I are beyond blessed!!!!

Yesterday I was out in the detached garage doing laundry, and I heard Bella calling for me from the house, "Mommy!  Mommy!" (My heart melts every time I hear my name in her little voice!)  I answered, "Bella!  Bella!"
     "I'm coming!" she called, and ran to find me.  She found me, gave me a kiss, and said "Bye now!" and went off to play.

Oh my darling little daughter, your father and I love you so!  I hope you always know that, and know we will support you 100% in every area of your life, guiding you towards the smart, correct, loving, and godly way of living, and lifting you up when you fall down and make mistakes.  It will be hard keeping our hands off and letting you fly, and yet our hearts will burst with pride when you soar to heights we ourselves did not achieve.  You are smart, amazing, beautiful, and so full of potential I want to cry when I think of it.  Keep your innocent, trusting, loving heart, my girl.  You will be hurt because of it, but the pain is worth it.  Your sweet spirit is to be valued above all things, and when all the sordid world around you gossips and snipes at each other and looks out for only themselves, you will be a shining star, a song whispering hope into the wind.  Song is your name, and a beautiful song you are, in our lives and the lives of all who know you!

On Saturday we had a birthday party for Bella at the park nearest our house.  It was so much fun seeing friends old and new!  They were generous with their gifts, and everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves.  The kids played on the play equipment, the ladies visited and played with the babies, and the guys had a vigorous game of basketball.  We ate chocolate cake and strawberries, and Bella opened her presents.  She was like a little princess in her fancy dress and cowboy boots!

As everyone says, they grow up way too quickly.

I love you, my Isabella Greer!