Carving Pumpkins! It's a Tradition

Dad once again made it possible for us to go to the house to do our annual pumpkin carving. I say Dad made it possible, but Mom did all of the work when it came to having us over. Dad did grow the pumpkins, in which we are very grateful. What would we do without Dad's pumpkins every year. It was a bit chilly (not too bad) but Mom had moved the tables over next to the garage to cut the wind chill factor down. It worked. It was a pleasant temperature for carving pumpkins.

Valerie, Marie and I started into the cleaning of the guts, actually Valerie and I did. If anyone knows how difficult it is for a 7 year old to clean out a pumpkin you know what I am talking about. Anyway, Marie loves Grandpa's ghost pumpkins. They are the white ones that are really thick and almost green inside. They are pretty difficult to carve, but once the sucker got cleaned out Marie took over and carved herself the perfect traditional pumpkin face all by herself. She did a great job. Valerie got hers done quickly, making a fabulous pumpkin vampire, complete with teeth. In the back she put a moon and some stars. Marie saw it and wanted the same thing, so she also carved in a moon and some stars into her pumpkin. Grandma thought the stars were bats. That Grandma, always messing things up, but Marie decided bats were a good idea and she carved some of those too. In the meantime I cleaned out my pumpkin and had to debate what I wanted to carve into my lovely pumpkin. I love the squatty, round pumpkins. I usually do a face of some sort, but what to do differently this year...I cut the face and I liked it, but it was a realatively small face as far as pumpkins go. I had so much pumpkin left...you can't just leave all that pumpkin surface untouched... so I decided to cut hair into my pumpkin, and there you have it, a jack-o-lantern masterpiece.

As I was carving my pumpkin, I kept listening to poor Carson next to me, complaining about having to clean his pumpkin out. It was too hard he kept saying...over and over again. Lesa was chastised by Carson for interferring last year with Carson's pumpkin carving. Apparently she had cut a smile into his pumpkin once when Carson didn't want a smile carved into his pumpkin, so she was staying completely out of it this year. After I watched Carson's pumpkin guts turn to mush, as he tried to just pull them out without really scrapping hard enough, I had mercy on him and helped him get it scrapped out too. Then I watched as Carson carved one of the biggest smiles onto his pumpkin. It was really cute. I also thought a little ironic;)

Dale and Jordan couldn't make it this year. Jordan had a school project that he needed to get to work on. Dale was needed to help guide him. So they stayed home and missed out on the fun. Grandma cleaned out Erin and Phoenix's pumpkins so they wouldn't be too far behind when they arrived. Once she got started though, she couldn't stop. She had a boat load of cleaned out pumpkins done, so I got to take a couple of them home to the boys for carving, all they have to do is carve the face. Do you think it has happened yet? I will let you decide, but remember, these are men we are talking about. Thanks Grandma for doing all of the hard work!

After carving pumpkins, we went inside for some of mom's yummy barbeque and potato salad. Mom makes the best barbeque ever. After dinner I had to get to choir practice, and Lesa had to get home to finish laundry, so eventhough it wasn't very dark outside, we lit the pumpkins and took the traditional "Finished Jack-o-Lantern Lighting" picture with the grandkids. I know Mom gets angry with Dad for the pumpkin carving mess at her house every year, but I really enjoy carving pumpkins with the family. It is a tradition that I really do love. So thanks Mom and Dad for allowing us this family tradition to take place every year.