Michael recently had his luggage "delayed" on his way home. When he spoke to the delivery driver, giving him directions to our house, he said, "You can't miss it. We're the house with the orange lights on our porch and the ghosts hanging from the trees. My wife loves Halloween!".
I'm pleased to say that I have passed along this love to my daughter. I wanted to get her in the Halloween spirit, so we had a special "Halloween Family Home Evening" the first Monday night of the month. I got out the storage container full of Halloween decorations and oozed genuine enthusiasm as I took out each thing to show her. Her level of interest was low to none, until I took out the GHOSTS. They are little white squares made of trash bag material with black eyes and an "O" shaped mouth painted in one corner. I stuffed the face corner of the squares with wadded up paper, tied a rubber band around the "neck", and hang them from the trees with twisty-ties. Despite their cheap construction, they last through rain and strong winds, and have survived 3 Halloweens thus far.
I showed Shaelyn that the ghosts could fly around if you held on to their twisty-tie "handles", and she had a blast running through the yard with one in each hand, streaming through the air, while we hung the lights and put out other various decorations. Now the ghosts have a home in our two pathetic front trees. They look so perfect swaying in the branches.
Shaelyn makes a daily visit to the trees to say hello to the ghosts. She waves to the ghosts as we come to and from the house in the car. She prays for the ghosts at night. And she's on the lookout for any other ghosts she can find while the Halloween season is upon us. You've seen her reaction to the ghost that danced at our church's Fall Festival. She looks for other yards with ghosts when we are on walks. She finds pictures of ghosts in our Halloween books. She squealed with excitement when she discovered that her gymnastics gym had hung inflatable ghosts from the ceiling. And no trip to Target is ever complete without going down the Halloween isles and finding all the ghost decorations.
But my favorite...
Her very audible reaction whenever anyone mentions "Holy Ghost" during Sacrament meeting. Yes, the child screaming "ghosts" at the top of her lungs is mine!
We also have a black cat and pumpkins to make our yard even more spooktacular. These get a daily visit as well.
Super Shaelyn checking out the ghosts to make sure they're safe for the night.
Here's our daily ritual - plug in the lights and make the rounds:
I think when Halloween is over, I'm going to have to hang a ghost or two in her room. Just until the Christmas decorations come, and then she can obsess over those...
