Fall

I love fall - definitely my favorite season. I love the colors of the leaves (as you've probably noticed from my recent photos), the sound of crunching leaves as we walk to/from school, the smells of fall in our house - baking pumpkin muffins, apple pies, bringing some of my heartier recipes into the dinner rotation.

Really the only thing I don't really like about fall is Halloween. Don't get me wrong, I love the candy, I like carving pumpkins but I never really liked dressing up, I don't enjoy scary/horror things, and have a severe phobia of spiders - even the fake ones. Put all that together and well, I'd just as well skip it altogether - or stay home eating fun size Hershey bars.

But of course we have kids, so that's not going to happen. Lots of people in our neighborhood decorate their yards and our kids wanted to too.  I told them I wouldn't decorate the outside, but inside we hung up some Halloween crafts they've made at school through the years, and helped them make a few more. Compromise.

This year we were invited to a Halloween party which thankfully my husband is on call for so we're skipping that. This weekend we have a kids birthday party to go to. Since the birthday girl loves to dress up, she has asked that the guests dress up (parents encouraged too). Normally I would skip it, but then yesterday I was playing with Little Man and he had me put on a cape I had made for Little Hugger when she was a witch. I had also made her a matching skirt. I tried that on and since it had an elastic waistband it fit too. So I'll wear some black put on the cape, skirt and hat and for once not be a total stick in the mud ;).

But no, I won't be dressing up for Halloween.  I'll talk a quick walk around our block with the kids, and let my husband take them all beyond that, while I stay home and hand out candy. 

So in this case balance comes in compromising enough to not stick out like a sore thumb, but still not beyond what I am comfortable/willing to do.