The Accidental Tradition

I don't like Halloween. I just don't.

I used to truly loath October 31, and really the whole season, all the "decorations" leading up to the day, the yucky costumes that night, EVERYTHING!

Two things have happened to make the day tolerable for me.

First, we moved to the state of Nevada. October 31, in addition to being Reformation Day (The date Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the door of the church, starting the Protestant movement) is also our state's birthday. Celebrating Nevada Day is significantly more palatable to me than Halloween!

Next, 5 years ago, an encounter with the profound glory of God, honestly made all the ugliness this world can muster for this date, truly make me ask, "Really? Is that the best you've got?" There's simply nothing ugly and evil enough to dampen the splendor of pure grace, goodness, peace, beauty. Honestly, the scary junk, while exactly that in my mind, junk, doesn't even phase me now. (Doesn't mean I like it, delight in it, find it pleasurable, just doesn't freak me out or give me nightmares like it did for nearly 40 years!)

I used to despise this date so very much that we would either turn every light in the front of the house off and just watch a movie or play games in the back and ignore the door, or we would actually pack up the family and go away for the evening, like to my parents' house since no trick-or-treaters even come to their retirement neighborhood.

Since my strokes, it easier to stay home then pack up, so that's what we usually do now. The first few years, my kids and hubby actually answered the door and gave out candy. Last year, I took a candy shift myself. This year, I fully managed the door all evening (though, with hearing loss, I missed the doorbell multiple times, making for some awkward moments as kids stood peering in the window and wondering why I wasn't answering, while I sat staring back waiting for them to play the game by ringing the bell before I opened the door).

Now that I've set the stage, let me tell you about our hysterical evening, the happy accident that created a  new family tradition.

Our daughter and I had just cleaned out the pantry. Since eggs (her) and wheat (me) are newly discovered allergens within the past year, we moved multiple partial Sam's / Costco size cases of various instant noodle meals to the front door so Rick (hubby can still eat them) could take them to work.

There sat all the individual noodle meals by the front door as kids came. About the third set of kids that came was a group of teenagers. As I gave them their candy, I heard, "Oh they have some good food in there. I saw cup noodles!"

On a whim, I called them back to the door and dropped noodles in their bags too. They all were SO excited! I haven't laughed that hard in a good while.

News quickly spread through the neighborhood that our house was "giving away soup," and packs of teens and college kids were showing up. As two girls said to one another, "Now we have dinner for tonight!" The reactions would make you think we were giving away cars or something! The squeals and pure delight left my teenager (pictured above) quite befuddled! He turned to Google and learned that cup-o-noodles as trick-or-treat gifts apparently are "a thing" in Japan. He insists, that even though he's going away to college next fall, we make family plans to give out cup-noodles every year from here on out.

It was a fun night. I would hear teens coming up the walkway saying, "I want soup!" so I would get candy ready just to see their reactions when I pretended that's all I had. I haven't laughed that much at one time in ages! Rick said it was wonderful to hear me laugh so much!

I wore the exact same shirt last year.
I couldn't find my wings this year, but the shirt displays my weight loss over the past year of being wheat-free.

We had food we could never have used before it went bad. We got to spread joy and had a blast doing so. :)