I procrastinated this halloween. With everything we had going on and the insanity of our hours in the day before I knew it it was the monday before halloween and I was throwing up my hands and handing over my computer to the kids to pick out whatever costume they wanted either on amazon prime or the halloween shop with $5.00 two day express shipping. Then I procrastinated again...and the day before halloween went out to get out pumpkins to carve that night. Only I couldn't find any. I swear I spent two hours driving around town and there was not a pumpkin to be found. Not one. On a last resort after deciding that, no I absolutely could not just go steal those unused pumpkins lining the mansion of a house I passed by, I drove to the last place I knew to look and suggested by some friends. They had about 20 way over priced slim pickin's of a lot of giant pumpkins to choose from. Darn it I we weren't going to NOT get to carve jack o' lanterns this year all because our town ran out of pumpkins! I would just have to be one of those suckers they cackled at as I drove away with my 6 giant orange money balls. I was not going to let this halloween pass by without the fun. We needed it. We needed some crazy, some relaxed, some de-stressing, some chill. We needed to have this fun after the last 3 months.
It was worth it. Every penny and every minute of driving and annoyance and kicking myself in the butt. It was Natalie and Jared's first year to ever celebrate halloween. Their first year to ever get to carve a jack o' lantern. Their first year to dress up and run around laughing too loud and being imaginative. Having fun.
I stood there in the yard watching them hack away and saw away and laugh away and eat nasty pumpkin seeds and my heart soared and I swallowed lumps. What it must feel like. What it feels like...to have a safe place to be free. To be you. To be human. To be a kid. To have fun.
To just be.
