All Saints Day

What a fun time we had trick or treating! We usually go with some other family members, but this year we kept it to just us - and I have to say I liked it much better. We got to go as a family instead of some of us being at a house passing out candy and some of us out trick or treating. It felt good to be all together.

 

Here is our Jack-O-Lantern - the B got messed up, but it still worked.

Abby and Will getting some treats! We usually stayed back on the sidewalk and watched, unless the doors were set far back in which case we walked up closer. But Abby usually took Will up and they rang the bell together. She was so good about helping him and making sure he said thank you. What a sweet big sister!

And here they are in all their scariness! We may be rethinking this next year. We just aren't sure. But this year the costumes were already purchased, so we went with it.

And today is All Saints day! I decided to keep it fairly simple, since we have never celebrated this before and I don't know half of what I am doing, haha! But we read the All Saints Day pages from our "Around the Year: Once Upon a Time Saints" book. We also looked up St. Abigail and St. William and learned about them. Glad I picked Saint names without knowing it. Haha! We will also be going to mass this evening. Even though for us it isn't a Holy Day of Obligation, because we intend to start RCIA as a family in January as soon as we get moved into the house (YES!!!!! We are!!!!), we decided we just do our best now to live as if we were already Catholic, because, well, it just seemed the right thing to do!

And, tomorrow we have All Souls Day! So much going on in a short few days. I love how its all connected. Tomorrow we will be going to visit the gravesite of Aunt Frances, who passed away a couple of years ago. She is my Memaw's sister, and was a faithful Catholic in her life. She had no children of her own, as her fiance died in Pearl Harbor and she never felt the urge to marry after that. My Memaw's children (my step-dad and uncles) adopted Aunt Frances in a way, and she was always at all of our holiday gatherings. There are some funny Aunt Frances memories (like the time she fell asleep on the couch and Abby and my brother Kaleb stole her wig off her head and began dancing around with it singing "I'm Aunt Frances!!!!" - so embarrassing, especially when Aunt Frances woke up, but she thought it was so funny!) Abby remembers her and cries sometimes thinking about her. So I thought it would be a good idea tomorrow to go and bring her some flowers, and to say a pray for her. I don't know exactly how purgatory works, but I know if she is there our prayers will be appreciated, and if she is in heaven then she will be praying for us. We miss you Aunt Frances! I have a feeling you may already be in heaven and have had your hand in all of the changes happening in our home. =o)