Halloween and beyond

I love Halloween. It's a time to dress up and have fun with family and friends. This year, I had two costumes; they consisted of the same clothes, but different accessories. On Friday night, our ward had it's annual trunk-or-treat, and I was all dressed in black. Mira decided to dress all in blue, so we went as a bruise. ^_^ The bishop (my brother-in-law) and his wife went as Jack and Jill. She held a pail and he wore a Burger King crown with a rip in it.
Then Saturday I went to my home ward for their annual chili cook-off and trunk-or-treat. I was going to dress all in black again, but my mom suggested I go as a cat. As I was looking for the tail, ears, and muzzle, I found my dad's black cowboy hat. Inspiration struck, and I had my costume. I went as "Cat" Ballou (from the movie of the same name). Dad won the Spiciest Chili Award, yet again. When he went up to accept his award, he wore a Grim Reaper costume, complete with real scythe! My neice was dressed as a biker baby, complete with leather skirt and jacket. She was so cute! And there were quite a few cats; even had a "kitten". ^_^
At both events, the cultural hall was packed! We had quite a few people attend, and some even brought friends. I was helping my mom pass out candy, and we quickly ran out, there were so many kids! And we made 60-70 bags of candy!
I was going to go to a party last night, but my conscience quickly caught up with me, so I didn't go. Sorry Lar! So that's my Halloween adventure, such as it is.
I don't know why people make such a big deal over Halloween. The biggest complaint I have is with people who demonize it. "Don't you know it's Satan's birthday?" That's quite a feat, since Satan was never born. He was cast out of heaven, and has been denied his own body. There are many more complaints, but they have totally skipped my mind.
Now that Halloween is over, I can look forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'll be involved in another stake Christmas cantata this year. It's a few of us that were in the flute group last year, plus some others that I haven't met yet. We're practicing Infant Holy, Infant Lowly. It's basically the same tune of Stars Were Gleaming in the children's songbook. It's very pretty.