This past weekend was a whirlwind of Autumn activities, family fun and making memories! All Hallows Eve, All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day were amazing for my family and we had a blast celebrating! To start all the fun we celebrated Halloween! As I stated before, you cannot have All Saints' without Halloween and vise versa. Check out Seven Ways to Have a Very Catholic Halloween if you don't believe me.
Halloween:
As everyone knows, this past Halloween was on a Monday so the school decided to host a Halloween Parade where all the children dressed as Super Heroes! If you follow me on Instagram, you are already aware that I barely made it to the Parade. I was scheduled to work and assumed I wouldn't make it at all but God blessed me with a quick and easy shift so I hurried over and made it just in time to join Little Man in his classroom. Little Man was Batman... well sort of. He wore a Batman hoodie because he is starting to think he is too cool to join in certain activities. I told him to enjoy being a kid because childhood goes by way too fast. He still seemed to have a great time!
My smart husband had remembered to request Halloween off (obviously I did not) and he was with Goalie walking through the parade. Goalie was so excited to show off his daddy and trick-or-treat throughout the entire school. Goalie decided to be Captain America. I absolutely LOVE that the costume has padded muscles because he is always talking about how big his muscles will be when he grows up. He wants to be just like his daddy who works out everyday.
After the parade, we headed home together and got changed into our first ever family costume! We decided to do a Star Wars theme. Harry, my husband, was Darth Vader. I was a Storm Trooper. Little Man was a Flame Trooper and Goalie was Captain Rex. I will be the first to admit that I have no clue what the difference between the storm trooper and flame trooper are and I also don't know if Captain Rex is on the Light or Dark side but we all had a good time and were asked several times to take pictures with people. You can also see our "melting" jack o' lanterns in the background.
As the Star Wars family we conquered the Haunted House in Old Colorado City (kid friendly of course) and did a little trick-or-treating as well. I was told some of our family photos would be posted by a few businesses on Facebook but I haven't had a chance to look for them yet.
I was so grateful a friend had invited us to do trick-or-treating as well because we have not been in the area for this season and had no clue what to expect. The kids walked away with two huge bags full of candy! I asked the boys to keep in mind as many people as they could so they could say a special prayer for the nice people that handed out candy... especially the ones that seemed to be home alone. We ended the evening as a family and the boys passed out. Me and the hubby enjoyed a glass of Spellbound Merlot and watched Gremlins.
All Saints' Day:
All Saints' Day is the real party. The kids had school so we had to wait until the evening to celebrate but we still had a great time. Which Saints did your children choose to dress up as this year? Little Man was Saint Dominic for the fourth year in a row and Goalie decided last second he didn't want to wear a costume. I felt sad but he has sensory issues so I didn't want to push the subject... he was Saint Michael the Archangel last year but had requested to be Saint Joseph. Maybe sometime before the end of the month I'll get a cute picture of him as Saint Joseph.
Also is it wrong that as an adult I really want to dress up for All Saints' Day too?! Are there families that do that? I need to know!
Do you have All Saints' Day traditions? We do! We decorate the house with saint medals, medallions and prayer cards. We also make a special dinner based on different Saints we love and cherish. Since Goalie wanted to be Saint Joseph and couldn't wear his costume, we decided on Spaghetti Squash Marinara and Turkey Meatballs. Italians have a great devotion to Saint Joseph and it is also customary to wear red on his feast day. Spaghetti Squash as a substitute for pasta made it a bit healthier and the baked turkey meatballs were a perfect companion to this Italian meal.
All Souls' Day:
All Souls' Day is the day we use to remember ones we have lost. I had a great idea to do a more elaborate "Day of the Dead" book for our home altar. It was a bigger undertaking than I originally anticipated. I wanted to create a book that includes at least one photo, the dates of birth and passing and a brief history or story. I will continue to work on this and I will share the final product.
In addition to the craft and extra prayers for our family, we made Soul Food for dinner. As you can imagine... dinner was demolished in a matter of seconds and I was unable to take a picture of it. We enjoyed some Baked Chicken, fresh garlic mashed potatoes and corn. Lots of comfort food and we all ate until we were ready for bed.
I am Mexican decent and El Día de los Muertos is a great big celebration there. I am hoping to make All Souls' Day a more elaborate celebration with Soul Cakes, Day of the Dead Bread and Sugar Skulls. What do you do to celebrate these amazing days with your families? traditions? recipes? I can't wait to hear all about it!
God Bless!
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