I'm a little behind on the Halloween post, but what can I say, it's been busy!
I ordered the baby's Halloween costume a couple of weeks before Halloween. The little guy wanted to be a firefighter, so it seemed fitting that the baby be a dalmatian. After searching the web, I finally found a costume in the baby's size on Amazon.com. Great! Order placed, confirmation received and the estimated date of arrival was Friday, October 28th. Shew, that was close!
Well, Friday comes and goes and I double check my confirmation, yes, it was definitely ordered. No need to panic yet, I'll just call Amazon.com to check on it (or at least I thought I would). I go to the web site, click on the "contact us" link. No number. After searching their site for 10 minutes, I realized they have no phone number to call. What, is this a joke? No joke, no number. Alas, they do have a link where you can click and enter your phone number and request they call you back, along with the time frame you would like them to call. Unbelievable, I'm actually requesting they provide customer service! I enter my number and request a call back in 5 minutes.
10 minutes later my phone rings. After a brief conversation I learn that the costume was out of stock. I was told an email was sent and they were sorry. I went back through my emails over the past couple of weeks. No email. Angry just isn't a strong enough word, I was LIVID. Livid isn't even strong enough. Not only did they not contact me to let me know the item I ordered AND PAID for was out of stock, they don't even provide a number so a person can expeditiously resolve an issue. UGH! That is the LAST time I order from Amazon.com!
Anywhoooo.....I was left SCRAMBLING! I went to at least 20 different stores looking for a white jogging suit so I could make the costume. FINALLY, I find a little white sweat suit at Belk. The only problem, it's a girl's with obvious "girly" touches like bows and ruffles. I know that when it comes to my hubby, this will not do. This means Mommy is going to have to do some alterations.
Great, so I purchase the sweat suit (silver lining, it was on sale for half the price of the costume). Then I run to another store to purchase fabric paint and a cheap back eyeliner pencil to color in my puppy's nose. Whew...rush home, and start hemming, altering and painting black spots on the outfit, after all, by this point, Halloween was a day away. Then it hits me...dogs have ears, not only ears, but they also have a tail. So, I get some black socks, stuff them and attach them to the hood and bottom of the outfit...WAH LAH....Dalmatian. Crisis averted.
Now to focus on what we do for Halloween. For my family, we choose to take this opportunity to learn to be better people and better Christians. The little guy always dresses up as something that represents something that happened over the previous year. (i.e. last year he was a helicopter, to commemorate his first helicopter ride) or a profession he would like to be when he grows up. Sometimes his costume represents both. We prepare for several weeks reading stories and learning about what he is dressing up as, what he has to do to accomplish it when he grows up, what the responsibilities are, etc. While trick or treating we use it as an opportunity to practice good manners and consideration. We only trick or treat for 1/2 hour because that's all the little guy wants to do. He can't wait to get home to hand out candy, sharing our bounty with others, regardless of if they deserve it, just as Jesus taught us. Halloween is a great opportunity not only to talk about it, but actually do it. My little guy loves Halloween, not because of the candy, but because he loves pretending he is actually whatever he's dressed up as (and he doesn't break character until the costume comes off) and most importantly, because he sees it as an opportunity to share with others. I had to talk him into going to the last two houses because he was in such a hurry to come home and share our candy. My heart was so happy.
I hope you and yours had a great Halloween too!
