"When you get older there's this feeling
that you have to start carving up your face and body."
-- Alanis Morissette
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| Self portrait on a pumpkin 10-28-13 |
"Only the knife knows what goes on
in the heart of a pumpkin."
--Simone Schwarz-Bart
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| Self portrait on a pumpkin 10-28-13 |
"He'd felt like a jack-o-lantern
for the past few days,
as if his guts had been yanked out
with a fork and dumped in a heap
while a grinning smile
stayed plastered on his face."
--Cassandra Clare, City of Ashes
Linus:
You don't believe the story of the Great Pumpkin?
I thought little girls always believed everything that was told to them.
I thought little girls were innocent and trusting.
Sally:
Welcome to the 20th Century!
-- It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
My son Leo and I carved our Halloween pumpkins yesterday.
Instead of the old school three triangles and a gap-toothed grin Jack-o-lantern, we tried to get a little more creative.
I, of course, carved a self portrait into my pumpkin. It took me a couple of tries to get it right (not as easy as it looks). But I like the end result. It may not be a "Great Pumpkin," but it's a pretty good one.
Leo carved a football player into his pumpkin, with a block "H" (for his football team, the Huron Tigers) and a number 2 -- his jersey number -- on the other side. I think he did a really good job for a first effort.
Here's Leo's pumpkin:
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| Leo's pumpkin 10-28-13 |
It was a lazy kind of Sunday, we were listening to the Cowboys/Lions game on TV.
Leo was a gentleman and scooped the guts out of my pumpkin for me because I think it's really gross, and I cut the top off his pumpkin, because he was afraid he'd cut himself. (But he did do all the rest of his own carving, for the record).
I showed Leo how to lay on a stencil and score out his design so it would carve easily. (And I showed him a little trick with flour that made the design easier to see).
I was able to teach my kid a couple things, and he was in the mood to learn. Bonus!
And Leo helped clean up the mess. Extra bonus!
We roasted some pumpkin seeds with olive oil, salt, oregano, basil and garlic. They were delicious. We ate them while we watched Matthew Stafford and the Lions in an impressive last-second victory over Dallas.
While the pumpkins turned out pretty cool, I have to say the best part of carving the pumpkins was doing it together. We weren't in a hurry. We didn't have anything else we had to do, or anyplace else we had to be, which is a rare thing (especially for Leo).
And when you have the freedom to do whatever you want, with whoever you choose, when somebody you love chooses you over all their other options, it feels pretty darn gourd ... er, good.
You know what I mean.
