Thankful November & Trick-or-Treaters

{via Pinterest}

There is always something to be thankful for in our lives.  Even when we think the walls are crumbling down around us.  Many times during the end of the year we get wrapped up in preparations for Christmas and overlook this month in which we should especially be thankful.  As a blogger, I have decided to participate in Paisley Print Shoes' Thankful November.  Every blog post I publish this month, I will include something I am thankful for at the top of my post.  You can join the challenge too!  No gimmicks needed to be apart of this club!

Today, I am thankful for the love of God.  I am thankful that He created the World.  I am thankful that He sent His only Son to save us from our sins.  I am thankful that He created me.

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Last night was our first experience with trick-or-treaters as husband and wife.  I would say it was a success {I passed out candy while my husband watched TV and informed me every time someone rang the door bell}.  We only had about 25-30 cute little munchkins, but that was OK because they all got extra candy.  Most of them were so cute and timid.  They would take their time and strategically pick the one piece of candy they wanted most.  I knew we had a ton of candy, and our landlords had recently told us that we wouldn't have many kids, so I let each and every kid grab one big handful of as much candy as they could handle!  You should have seen the look on their faces when I told them to take more.  Priceless and so cute!

{Check out our awesome candy selection}

The plastic orange Halloween bowl I placed my candy in last night isn't just any ole' bowl....it belongs to my grandmother.  This was the first year that she wasn't home to hand out candy to all of the neighborhood kids.  I wanted to keep the tradition going, so my mom let me bring it home to use.  I tell you, this woman loves Halloween!  She loved to see all the kids dressed up, and even kept count every year of how many she served.  For all of mine and my sisters close friends she would make a special bag of candy.  Some years she even had freshly popped pop-corn wrap in cellophane bags for them.  I can picture her now wearing a black witch hat sitting on her front porch handing out candy and yelling "Happy Halloween" before most kids could make it down the driveway.  One year in particular, I remember she went to the grocery store last minute to purchase a few extra bags of candy.  Upon her arrival home, she realized she left her wallet at the store.  She back tracked to the store and all other places she had been, but never could find her wallet.  She didn't let it get to her though.  She loved the kids too much to let a lost wallet get her down.

Every time I opened the door to see children dressed in their costumes last night, I couldn't help but to think about my grandmother and her big heart.  Even though I didn't have a witch hat to wear, I placed a smile on my face and said "Happy Halloween" just as she would.  I'm sure many people in her nursing home heard these words from her yesterday, and I know she said them with a smile on her face!