Traditions are an important part of where we live. Each home has brought new traditions. The one bedroom apartment tradition was having tea in the morning with a friend. The apartment in Texas was hanging evergreen on the banister. The Philadelphia tradition was taking walks with my baby to look at Christmas lights. The house in Texas was filled with holiday traditions like an Easter egg hunt, trick-or-treating with friends, and fireworks with the neighbors. The traditions seem to multiply with the ages of the children.

We have traditions in this home as well. Birthday parties are held here at the house with lots of friends. We go to hear concerts in the park in the summer. And at this time of year we celebrate Halloween with friends in another neighborhood.

It started out as just going to trick-or-treat with them, since we don't have a neighborhood. I did take the kids to the neighbor's house the first year, and he didn't know what to do. So he got out his change jar (an old coffee can filled with coins, screws, and nails) and let the kids take some money. The friends' party has turned into a big to-do, and the whole family enjoys it. One of the other kids plans it all and makes the food. She puts out quite a spread, and last year was excited about her punch with a hand in the middle of it.

We all eat and visit and then the kids go trick-or-treating. We take turns going with the kids, and when they get tired, they come back for a drink and a break. At the end of the night everyone dumps their candy out on the floor and the trading begins! It is like being in the pit on Wall Street!! I have laid claim to all coconut already this year. Love those Almond Joy and Mounds.

One tradition that hasn't been made is the Haunted Corn Maze. When we moved here, we arrived on Halloween. The church youth group was going to the Haunted Corn Maze and invited us along. We had been here a few hours, when I exposed my poor children to the horrors around them. We had to walk through yelling, "Little Kids!! Don't scare them!" We have never been back.

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Another tradition is that our church hosts a Trunk-or-Treat for the neighborhood. This year I helped the kids with a haunted house, and we did it based on the theme of the Ten Plagues of Egypt. I had a friend buy 2 goldfish and we put red lights under the bowl to give the appearance of the Nile turned to blood. I thought those fish would die before the night was over. Was I ever wrong! Those simple things are living still, and the kids have fed them flour! I didn't get fish food since I expected them to die. I also have been putting them in a jar and straight into tap water! If I had wanted them to live they would have been dead by now.