October 31st is...Carve a Pumpkin Day. (What? You thought I'd say "Halloween?" Well, yeah, but that goes without saying, doesn't it?)
So, October 31st is Carve a Pumpkin Day. Here at Chez Wheedleton, we usually carve our pumpkins a week or so before. This is not a usual year, however, because we have yet to carve our pumpkins for 2010. And today, as I perused a giant cardboard bin full of large, bright orange pumpkins just screaming to be carved, I thought back to Wheedleton Pumpkins Past.
Pre-children, my husband C and I carved pumpkins every year for Halloween: silly faces, mostly. (OK, I carved. He watched and lamented his lack of pumpkin-carving prowess. But he did at least pull out the guts.) Post-children, we still did silly-faced Jack-o-Lanterns, but per the kiddos' requests, came to add a slew of Disney character carvings to our artistic repertoire.
When they were old enough to wield a pencil with some authority, our Small Offspring would enthusiastically wave their masterpiece drawings inches from my face, then scrutinize my work very closely to be sure their design's integrity remained intact: black cats with arched backs, happy ghosties, Halloween-y words and phrases, and whatever else caught their fancies.
As those Small Offspring grew, the design requests got more intricate - like the kind where you carve both the front and the back, so that when you put the candle or light inside the pumpkin, the light shines out through the front picture, plus a design is illuminated on the wall behind the pumpkin through the back carving. Very cool. But even with an increased Coolness Factor, they were still the silly, friendly Jack-o-Lanterns of yore.
And then came last year. When pumpkin carving night came, Handsome Boy pulled out his paper with his design ideas, which were more-or-less friendly-Halloween themed. Lovely Girl had other ideas. She had jabbered on about them for weeks, and furthermore insisted that 2009 was the year she would carve solo. But when Handsome Boy saw her design, and saw that I was allowing it, he was beyond thrilled, and asked if she would share.
She said yes.
So 2009 found Chez Wheedleton with just one pumpkin on display. But what a display:
Barfolamew (the Barfkin) was awesome: a total hit with Trick-or-Treaters from tiny to tall.
But oh, I miss those little, smudgy drawings, clenched in tiny, hopeful fists...
