Make it Hallelujah Night!

As our kids have gotten older, we have had to make some decisions regarding Halloween. We don't celebrate it. But most around us do, and that could be confusing for some of our younger children.

 
We believe that:

1. participating in Halloween does not bring glory and honor to our Lord
2. we don't want our children eating all that candy
3. we can socialize with our neighbors 364 other days of the year (Christmas time is always good!)
4. our children don't need a special day to dress up - they do it all the time!

 
In the past we have gone to my parents' home for dinner. Our kids dressed up, and passed out candy when the doorbell rang. Last year my parents weren't going to be home due to my dad coaching a football game, so that was our first attempt to go full force with new family traditions.

So, for our 2008 Hallelujah Night, we decided to take the kids to the beach.
 

We played - they ran around... 

And then we had lunch at a great little restaurant on the beach.  

We then headed over to the harbor to tour the traveling historical replica of the Nina ship, which was docked there that week.

 

It is amazing how small that boat is!

So hard to imagine all those people... and all those supplies... in that small space...for so long...out at sea!

My favorite part of our new Hallelujah Night tradition was later that evening. Earlier in the week I had prayerfully looked for scripture verses that related to the names of each of our children. That night we prayed the Word of God over each child, as it related to their names.

The children agreed it was a great day!