Preparing the Pumpkins

Traditionally, on the evening before Halloween, the girls each design a face for each of our carvable pumpkins. This year, despite having 6 pumpkins at our house, we only carved two. Only two?! Yes, only two. We couldn’t carve three because our most experienced pumpkin face designer was gone* for the week.

So, Caroline and Katherine began their designs, each trying to design the face that would be chosen to grace the larger of the two pumpkins. Luckily for me the choice was easy. Katherine’s design really was better suited for the smaller of the two pumpkins, and Caroline’s, the larger.

After we decided which face would adorn which pumpkin, the gutting began. The girls had fun scooping the goop out of the pumpkins. They enjoyed squishing the slimy, seed- filled guts between their fingers as they scraped the pumpkins clean. Will, on the other hand, would have no part of the fun. Too messy. Too slimy. Ick! We could tell by looking at his face that he was not going to be coming anywhere near that mess!

Once the girls had the pumpkins completely scraped clean, and I had drawn the faces on each one, David stepped in with the very sharp knives. That’s our routine. I draw, he cuts. We’ve done it this way since before we were married, or even engaged; ever since our first Halloween together in 1988 (Gasp! Wow! You do the math!). We may be in a rut, but it works for us!

On Halloween night we lit each pumpkin’s candle and set out the basket of candy. The porch should have looked very inviting to all trick-or-treaters. We were ready. We had it all…the pumpkins, the mood, the candy. But no one came. No one ever comes.

To be continued…

* Morgan was canoeing on the Potomac River all week with a group from school.