Preparing for All Hallow's Eve

Tomorrow is Halloween. The one day a year where it is perfectly acceptable to dress like a freak. It is also become on of the major holidays at our house. We have almost as many Halloween decorations as we do Christmas decorations (ok, not even close, but it does come in second place in deco department). The decorations go up as early as September, and will probably stay up until the week before Thanksgiving.

One of the most important parts of Halloween is the carving of pumpkins. That ritual usually takes place five or six days before Halloween, but we have been really busy this year. We got our pumpkins from the Garden Orchard at the beginning of this month. They have the biggest, best pumpkins and they are so cheap. Since they arrived at our home, they have been residing on the back porch so they didn’t get stolen or smashed. Now, the night before the ghouls and ghosts arrive, we are set to carve.

Can I tell you something about big pumpkins? They are a pain to carve! The one benefit is that you never have a problem fitting your hand inside to scrape the guts out, but the walls are so thick that it’s close to impossible to make them easy to carve. Of course it doesn’t help that I always pick the most difficult pattern to carve. I think is has something to do with being manly. Those small intricate patterns are such a pain! But I love doing them. I will admit, I have become more lax in my carving. I used to make sure every line was perfect and that there were no straggling bits of inside showing. Now, not so much. Get it done, and make it look presentable, but perfection is not necessary. The pattern I used this year took about 45 minutes to carve (not counting gutting time). In the past it would have taken me at least twice that. But is still looks awesome.

Rob and Cat's Pumpkins

A Closer Look at Rob's Work of Art

"Igor's Brew"

Well, hopefully we have a quite devil’s night (I don’t want to have to clean up any rotten eggs). No, I’m not dressing up tomorrow, not because I don’t want too, I just don’t have a costume (plus I can’t wear one to work) but Cat is (some sort of circus act I think).

Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!