A Holy Halloween!

Our family tradition of celebrating All Saints Day instead of the secular Halloween holiday is becoming more fun every year! We are so thankful that the school our boys attend also believes in focusing on "things above" rather than "things below!" The K-2 grades dress up as saints and give saint reports to the large group of families who come to the Fall Festival party at the school. The kids learn so much about a myriad of saints, and hopefully it plants seeds in their hearts to imitate those holy saints. After all, we are all called to be saints! On Halloween evening, we invited other Catholic families to join us at our house to celebrate the saints with us. We began the party by praying a traditional Litany of the Saints, asking for their intercession to help us grow closer to Christ. After our meal, the kids played three fun saint games: Pin the Halo on the Saint, Throw the Halo on the Saint, and the St. Therese's Drop Roses Game. Prizes were awarded to the winners (and the losers), and then the kids beat the tar out of some unsaintly looking pinatas that the boys and I made. We may not believe in trick-or-treating, but we still believe our little saints deserve some fun and sugar :) Here are some photos of our "saintly" family and friends at our All Saints Day celebration. I love having holy fun!

Here is Joseph, dressed as St. Hubert the hunter-turned-bishop, with some other saintly friends at the school Fall Festival

Here is our adorable Dominic dressed as St. Francis. Dominic loved being covered with his favorite stuffed animals, just as St. Francis loved preaching to the animals who surrounded him

Here is our ivory-skinned Michael dressed as the dark-skinned St. Juan Diego, the saint who received the miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on his tilma

Here is my truly saintly husband dressed as St. Padre Pio, the saint who received the stigmata and many other miraculous gifts to bring others closer to Christ

Here I am trying to look like St. Elizabeth, the wealthy queen of Hungary who often gave bread to the poor, but when the King tried to stop her, the bread miraculously turned into roses and caused her husband to become a Christian

Here is Joey C. playing the St. Therese Drop Roses game. His rose landed closest to the picture of St. Therese, so he won 1st prize

Here is Grace, dressed as Blessed Mother Teresa, playing the Throw the Halo on the Saint game

Here is Agnes, dressed as St. Bernadette, very gently tapping the Black Widow pinata, just as the timid St. Bernadette probably would've done

Here is Michael smashing the pinata in a not-so-saintly-fashion

Here is Joseph, dressed as St. Hubert, with the remains of the deer pinata on his head. I was shocked to see the bright shining "cross" between his antlers, just like the real story of St. Hubert and the stag. It is said that St. Hubert was hunting on Good Friday rather than attending Mass, and just as he was about to shoot the giant stag it turned to face him with a shining cross between his antlers and said, "Hubert, unless you turn from your sinful ways, you will surely go to hell." St. Hubert quickly converted after that experience and eventually became a bishop.

Good, holy fun had by all...

all for the greater glory of God! :)