Happy Samhain!

Okay so I already posted pictures of the kids in their Halloween Costumes but I forgot to take pictures of the rest of our evening. We of course went Trick or Treating. Each Kain and Aubriel's had friends join us, since they are cousins. I was so happy that the kids only ended up doing our street and decided to call it quits. That means far less candy for us to fight over since they were already getting into it with their Dad when he came home from work trying to steal some from them!Our little "Joey" with a Joey.This isn't the best picture of us since it was taken by one of the kids and I didn't dress up like a Kangaroo like the kids wanted but at least I wore him like one.

Those that know me well know that although both Dave and I were raised traditional Christian and we celebrate those holidays we also have found great comfort in our Christian roots (and I suppose in our ancestries roots too) known in the form of Celtic Paganism.

So after we returned home I built a fire in the backyard for us to celebrate Samhain (SOW-in) meaning "the end of summer" or Samhuin (sav-en) meaning "All Hallows" as in "All Hallows Eve". It is also known as the witches New Year so I always love to sit around a fire with my children and talk about of favorite memories of the past year. It was a perfect night for it too! In the past it seems our Oct. 31st is always bitterly cold and/or raining but not last night. It was warm, relatively speaking, and clear. We all gathered around the fire with our homemade soup and bread (although the bread was baked the day before since I have heard it is bad luck to bake bread on Samhain) well the kids had pizza, very traditional I'm sure and we spent the rest of the evening as a family.

So today we will continue celebrating all the wonderful things of the last year and give thanks for them and the lessons we have learned from them. We will remember those that have touched our lives not only in the last year but throughout our lives that we have lost. We will also make plans for the new circle we are about to enter, things we want to do, learn, discover, as we enter the darker time of year. The time of year where we can go within ourselves to work on our own personal growth just as the days get shorter and the wildlife takes a much needed winters rest. I love celebrating the Pagan traditions as they seem to reconnect me to nature, the rhythms of the earth, and gets me back on my own spiritual journey.