#any sort of holiday spirit he could feel he isnt.

[puhpandas]

Halloween Spirit

(1,770 words)

Evan learns that the spirit of Halloween comes with enjoying spending time with people you love during the season, and thats why he'd never felt anything of the sort with Michael and his father. 🍫🎃🕷

"Have you ever been to Spirit Halloween?" Gregory asks him someday when they're hanging out at his house. Evan looks up from one of Gregory's drawings he was coloring in and tilts his head.

"No." Evan replies after a moment. And hes never wanted to, either. Not only would getting there mean either his Father or Michael would have to take him, but he knows Michael gets all of the scary masks he terrifies Evan with there. Plus that there are animatronics with uncanny molds and bloody faces and long fingers and black cloaks that jump out and scream at you.

So hes never really had an urge to go. Hence why he's literally never been.

"Never?!" Gregory exclaims when he learns about it. He jumps up off of his bed, shaking his head. "Evan, going to Spirit Halloween is like... it's like a major life event. Its tradition. You go to Spirit Halloween every year during the season to get pumped for it."

"I've never heard of that." Evan replies. "I've just... never had a reason to go."

He purposefully leaves out all the reasons he never has wanted to go. He doesnt want to be a Debbie Downer.

"Well now you do." Gregory tells him. He grabs the sketchbook out of Evan's hands, setting it on his comforter and then yanking Evan off the bed with suprising strength. "I'm taking you to Spirit Halloween today. No take backs."

Evan yelps, and only narrowly avoids eating carpet. "I never even agreed in the first place." Evan points out. After he doesnt pull away, Gregory let's him go to slide his shoes on. "But... sure. I'll go with you."

"Yes!" Gregory pumps a fist, slipping a navy hoodie on. With a faint smile at Gregory's excitement, Evan stays how he is, already wearing a plenty warm wool sweater. All he has to do is pull his own converse on and they're out the door.

"How have you never been?" Gregory comments when they've set off, following the sidewalk. The trees have long since all turned reds and oranges and yellows, and they flutter in the pleasant breeze the Autumn season is producing. Pumpkins and skeletons and spiderwebs decorate every yard theyve passed, and store windows hold those jelly stick-on's. "Pretty much everyone has."

"Nobody's ever taken me." Evan replies, shrugging. "My family doesnt really decorate. Especially now that its just us."

Before, when his Mom and Elizabeth were still living with them, there would be the occasional decorating. Elizabeth would whine and push for something seasonal to celebrate and his parents would cave and buy some cheap decorations to sling up around the house. But that was years ago, when he was a much younger kid. Now, hes thirteen, and its just him, Michael, and their Father.

Evan dares to think Michael would actually like to have decorations up. It's just that he believes he's 'too cool' for things like that. He's always enjoyed Halloween, if not for access to extra scary masks then to run around town with his friends to spook other innocent children. Plus, the king size candy bars he always brings home have to mean something.

Evan's never really had a reason to like it when every time he'd dress up he'd be made fun of in some sort of way, and then actively targeted as soon as he'd step outside. Plus, everything Michael likes about Halloween, Evan dislikes.

But Evan dares to believe this year will be different. The reason being right next to him.

"God, your family is so boring." Gregory groans. "Nobody even took you like... when you were a kid years ago?"

"Nope."

"Ugh." Gregory makes a face, slinging an arm around Evan's shoulder. "Well thats why you dont like Halloween. Because your family has always sucked too bad to let you enjoy it."

Evan nods sagely, knowing its true. His family always makes Halloween what they do or dont do. And usually, Evan's never cared enough to wish for a better, more seasonal holiday. He's always been too worried about other things to be in any sort of joyful mood.

"Well, dont worry about it right now, alright?" Gregory tells him, shooting him a grin. "This year you'll get to experience real Halloween. We'll get you a costume and take you to see cool stuff, and you'll get to do stuff like carve pumpkins and bake cookies with us."

Evan's eyes widen at the influx of activities. He's only ever done maybe a couple of those throughout his whole life.

He looks at Gregory earnestly, brain already flashing with images of Evan laughing and smiling, flinging cookie batter at Gregory, costume shopping without the lingering paranoia, and digging his hands inside a pumpkins guts.

The promise of having fun with people he actually likes, who like him back is so overwhelming, he almost tears up.

He pushes it down, offering Gregory a wobbly smile. "That... that sounds fun."

"It always is!" Gregory boasts, and Evan is convinced he can see stars in his eyes. "Man, I wish Ness were here. I really want her to meet you. It would be so cool spending Halloween with both of you.

There goes another mention of the infamous older-sister-away-at-college. Evan's heard a few of those, but it's not what he focuses on in that moment.

Something about Gregory putting him on the same level as his biological sibling makes something warm and fluttery bloom in Evan's stomach.

"You'll get to introduce me someday." Is all Evan manages to get out, and he almost backtracks at the implication in his sentence that Gregory will be willing to stick by him that long. But Gregory just smiles, shakes his shoulders a bit, and goes "She'll love you."

Evan hides his smile in the collar of his sweater. If Gregory is so sure, Evan cant wait to meet her, too.

It's not long at all afterwards that they finally make it to the store. Evan thinks it looks very bare bones, compared to how Gregory was describing it, but Gregory just says not to judge a book by its cover.

Gregory was right. The inside is what counts.

Halloween decorations fill very inch, gravestones and spiderwebs and skeletons waiting to greet you. There are tons of different mini-sets around the store with animatronics, and despite how Evan stays as far away from the animatronics as possible, Gregory's excitement over them make him feel better about how creepy they are.

Evan's favorite section though has to be the costume wall.

It's just a shelf full of silly costumes stuffed in bags from floor to ceiling, and it stretches across almost the entire store.

"Ness and I used to spend hours here just making fun of the costumes." Gregory had said after bringing him to it. "Look at the model on this one."

Then he'd pointed at a dumb looking werewolf, and when Evan had burst out laughing, they'd kept going.

The daylight outside slowly fizzles out in the corner of Evan's vision, in the foreground. That gray, cloudy sky that comes with Autumn fading into a dark, deep blue. By the time its their turn to leave, Evan's cheeks hurt from smiling and his throat is dry from how much he had talked and laughed.

Before they go, Gregory insists on buying Evan a Halloween sweater, no matter how much he'd protested. It's another thing he insists is tradition.

When Gregory didnt budge, Evan caved and chose a really soft black one with and orange collar and a Jack-o-lantern in the middle. Gregory had chosen one for himself, then proceeded to get attached to one of the plastic inaccurate skeleton animals and buy it too. They'd named the little dog with bone ears and a bone nose Davey.

Evan never imagined that this is what the spirit of Halloween is like, but he feels it now more than he ever has. It reminds him of those Christmas movies he'd see on TV where the lesson would be that the true meaning of Christmas is spending time with your family.

As sad as it sounds, Evan never understood those. But he thinks he gets it now.

Because the contrast between last year and this year is so stark. It's not the fact that he went to a Halloween store. If he'd gone last year with Michael and his Father, he would have been miserable, because Michael would try to make him be. This year, he had fun looking at silly stuff with Gregory.

Its only now, when Gregory is handing cash over to the employee behind the counter, who'd just bagged their sweaters and Davey, that he realizes just how much Gregory is his best friend.

They only met in July, after all... but even that feels like a lifetime ago, despite how the school days went by so much quicker with a friend, no longer so awful.

Funny how Evan already feels closer with a boy hes known for a few months than he ever has with his brother and father.

"Can I sleep over?" Evan asks when they break through the doors of the store and the cool air of Autumn washes over his face. He breathes in the scent of fallen leaves and actually notices a difference, this time.

He's feeling bold, he realizes. Scenarios of how he could get in trouble for not asking flash in his mind, but he notices he doesnt really care in the moment.

Gregory, like how telepathic he feels sometimes, notices too. He grins, acknowledging the significance, and nods, bringing out his phone. "Let me call my Dad and we'll swing by your house to grab you a bag."

Evan nods, smiling himself. He plays with the plastic of the bag in-between his fingers, peeking at Davey through the gaps.

"When we get home, I'll make some popcorn and hot chocolate, and then you gotta watch this movie with me. I watch it every year for Halloween."

Evan nods repeatedly, smile already growing on his face. After today, hes sure itll be fun.

They sit on the curb, leaves floating through the breeze, and a light sprinkle starts just in time for Freddy to pull into the driveway.

They hop in the car and Evan watches the scenery outside, looking at people decorations and imagining how he'd carve his own pumpkin, or ice his own cookies.

He'd never cared before now. He'd never cared because he'd never been given the chance to. But now he does. And all he's thinking about is how much 'going home' with Gregory feels right.

ao3 link

bonus: this is Davey

[allorganichome]

An Old Fashioned Christmas

An Electronics-Free Christmas? We Did (And We Survived)

Around here, we’re an organic, granola-crunchy, natural bedding-sleeping, plastic-free (okay, plastic-reduced…this keyboard I’m typing on has outed me there all by itself) family.

And honestly, I’m proud of us for this. It has taken a long time, a lot of research, and tons of substitutions (and trial and error) to get to the point where I can legitimately say my family lives as natural a lifestyle as possible, within the limits that the modern world imposes.

Through the years, when it comes to the natural life, Christmas has been our final frontier. What can be more glittery, more plastic-y, more brightly lit and more deliciously, deck-the-hallsy faux than Christmas? Not in spirit, of course. (That’s a personal matter, and can be a very meaningful and deep one.) Rather, I’m talking about its materialistic practicalities.

Because yes, “natural” or no, like so many other families, we absolutely love all the trimmings of the season, right down to tinsel (yikes!), non-LED lights (come on, we HAVE to buy new lights?), plastic-wrapped candy canes, DVDs (and “24 Hours of a Christmas Story, of course”), made in who-knows-where Elf on the Shelf…the list goes on.

You can see how such a schism was bound to make me, Granola Mommy, feel a bit, well, hypocritical. So last year, I decided we would have a true old-fashioned Christmas…with NO electronics.

(Pausing for a moment of silence here. I know, I know. Hang in there, it’s not all bad, I swear.)

Granted, depending upon just where you go with “old-fashioned,” one could be talking about lead tinsel, non-child-friendly paints and plastic everything…even when one goes quite some way back in time. So we went way-er back than that (is way-er a word?) and decided to shoot for a Victorian (or even pre-) holiday.

Want to know how we did it…and laughed about it (and in the end, decided to make it an annual tradition)? Curious about trying it yourself? Here’s how to have your very own old-fashioned, au naturel Yuletide. Hint: it’s not all twigs and berries (though they’re there too ) and it definitely won’t be perfect, but it WILL be fun. That much I promise you…and it’s my gift to you.

1. Douse the Lights

That’s right. All of them. Just for the day and night, mind you. Yes, you CAN live without electronics. We did it, and we only considered Xanax a few times. (Maybe a few dozen?) You can do it too!

Christmas is all about candlelight…especially a Victorian or heck, a Renaissance Christmas. Of course, if you’re concerned about fire, you can cheat and get battery-operated flameless candles. (I’ll give you a pass on that one.) We went halfsies: for candles closer to small(ish) hands (our littlest was five), we used the battery type, and for the rest, we used the real deal – beeswax, in fire-safe dishes and well away from décor.

I know, I know…it’s sad to see an unlit Christmas tree. One thing I will NOT recommend to you is a traditional Swedish tree decked with, literally, candles. This is intended to be an old-fashioned Christmas, not a fire department one. Emergency response personnel have families too…spare everyone and skip the (literally) lit tree, just for this one night.

2. Bake Up a Storm

I’m a scary baker. I’ll admit it. (Hey…weren’t we just talking about the fire department a minute ago? Hashtag coincidence.)

But because I have taken us back to basics, I’ve had to learn to cook. For our traditional, unplugged Christmas, I didn’t use any ingredients I couldn’t spell.

It’s easy to make anything delicious without adding anything weird to the mix. Trust me. A little organic cane sugar, something flour-ish (we used rice, tapioca and potato flours as we’re gluten-free) and you can make anything taste good…well, except the turkey.

I forced my kids to help, but despite themselves, they loved it. Pull your little ones in, and any friends you can gather. If you have an electronic stove, okay, that’s a cheat too…so do your “big baking” the day before, and be set with wonderful cookies, pies and other goodies on the Big Day.

3. Make Your Own Décor

You may not be the Pinterest queen (goodness knows I’m not), but you CAN make adorable Christmas décor.

Ever seen a movie or read a book that described the family making tree garland out of popcorn and cranberries? Yes, that can really be done. Take my advice, though, and use thimbles. Just…trust me on this one. Then sit everyone in a row with a heavy thread, needle and lots of popcorn…and start threadin’.

This takes forever. For. Ev. Er. But wow, is it fun to think of things to talk and laugh about…and get back to family basics with.

More do-it-yourself décor: pine cones and berries on the table; cardboard cutouts of reindeer, stars, trees, gifts and Santa; snowflakes cut out of organic coffee filters (fold the filter four times and cut small semi-circles and triangles, then open back up); and grapevine wreaths stuffed with bits of pine twigs, dried fruit, and dried flowers.

4. Learn to Sing

I love to sing, and I’m not terrible. But how many families sit around and sing for their entertainment nowadays? We did, and after a few uncomfortable glares at Mom’s tremolo (don’t judge), my children, wife, in-laws and I were trilling up a storm in no time.

What do you do without electronics? Well, what did people do BEFORE electronics? Putting aside more unsavory possibilities, like competitive rock-throwing or stall-mucking, I’m going with: they sang. Remember Pa from Little House on the Prairie, getting his family to sing and toe-tap to his fiddle playing? Yeah, it’s like that. And yes. It IS fun. Try it.

5. Play a Game

There are all sorts of non-electronic games you can play to make the evening fun (or, as my 13-year-old said, “Less skull-crushingly boring.” Isn’t he great? I just love that little dude…hyperbole for the win).

Remember charades? Jokes? Twenty Questions? Those and more are all games that would have been played in days of old. You don’t have to play a Victorian game…just play a game. One that doesn’t involve any buttons, except the ones of Dad’s you’ll push by making a bald joke or slipping a swear word into your turn at charades.

It’s amazing how close a family can get from playing a silly game and laughing about it…and being competitive about it…and losing but not caring because the win was just so darned clever. Depending on your age, you probably played games with your family. Remember the fun? It’s still there…bring it back. Don’t remember the fun? (Oh you Millennials…) Start fun of your own. Make up your own game and make it a tradition.

However you celebrate Christmas, enjoy…and have a happy (and natural!) New Year!

Your Home.Your Life. All Organic.

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