Ellie celebrated her feast day today. There were waffles for breakfast, tea in fancy dresses with a lunch time visit from her godmother (I am kicking myself for not getting a photo of them together. Elizabeth taught about St. Elizabeth to all six of her classes dressed as St. Elizabeth. Beautifully epic!), donuts, a necklace and nail polish from Elizabeth, Susan joined us for the requested stroganoff for supper, lots of ipad and wii time and a delicious cake Susan brought. She went to bed exhausted and happy. It was a good day.
Really though, every day since Halloween has been a good day for her. Yes, she has been the image of eager anticipation for weeks as she counted down to today. But just knowing Halloween was over brought an abundance of relief.
Right around the time we were birthday shopping for Tess, she saw some Halloween decor in a store.
“Well,” she said with a a sigh of resignation, “Guess I won’t be shopping for a while.”
I took the bait and asked for the reason why.
“Because of all the creepy stuff.” she said. If she was like her sister or just a leetle older she would have followed it with an “Obviously.” and an eye roll.
Oh, riiiiiight!
It was a long month of hood-wearing, eyes-shut stumbling, walking-right-in-front-of-mom-and-in-between-the-shopping-cart trips for groceries and birthday presents. We praised her for her bravery and thanked the Lord that there were no screaming hysterics this year. She would eagerly offer to stay in the car or stay home as long as she didn’t have to go inside a store and chance a large hanging spider or billowing ghosts.
Then she began to notice the yard decor and then she was more than happy to remain house bound.
Her relief on the first of November was palpable and I have heard on numerous occasions, “I’m SOO glad Halloween is over!”
Me, too! Except that means that the stores are now full out Christmas and that sends me into the same hood-wearing, eyes-shut avoidance. Can I just stay home ’til it’s over?