Double dipping

We went to an All Saints Day party today. "Double dipping" refers to the fact that we kind of walk the line when it comes to secular vs religious traditions -- today the girls dressed up as Saints and got some candy at a church party; tomorrow its princesses, cats and rag dolls and even more candy! Some people choose to do the All Saints thing as a way to avoid the dark and gory undertones of Halloween, while still giving their kids a chance to dress up. We're not really opposed to Halloween (OK, I love Halloween) but the All Saints parties can be fun, too, plus we get to learn more about the Saints. So we do both. :)

Anyway, Beth was co-erced into being Joan of Arc (I think she's a cool saint, but all my girls wanted to be "pretty" saints. Beth finally agreed to let me live vicariously through her, bless her.) She was waiting to leave, all decked out in her armour and helmet, sword and cape while I simultaneously dressed Claire and lectured Beth on St. Joan's life. While I was explaining St. Joan's bravery and her love of God, Beth leveled a deadpan look at Chris, and with a steely voice said, "I'll kill you."

Uh, I guess she couldn't get past the sword and helmet. Katie knew her saint down cold (She was the Blessed Mother - she likes to be the top dog. (: ) Claire was St. Elizabeth of Hungary, but since Claire can't even remember her own age half the time, I wasn't going to stress about her biography. So most of our prep time involved talking about how Joan of Arc dressed up as a boy and led an army (very interesting stuff to little girls.) We briefly talked about her martyrdom, but the girls were so horrorfied at the thought that I quickly moved on to other subjects. Later at the party, however, when asked to describe her saint Beth responded with,"I was tied to a tree and set on fire."

So much for avoiding the dark and gory element of Halloween.