Pumpkin Carving Traditions

Right now we are headed to my sister in law’s house for her annual Pumpkin Carving Party and I am super excited! My mister is driving. While it is only a 2 hour drive, it can get long so he likes to make it interesting. He beeps the horn and announces to everyone in the car that “Sherman tooted!” Never a dull moment, y’all!

Last year, we had just gotten home from our honeymoon so we weren’t really in halloween-mode. I made the most amazing pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting for the Pumpkin Carving Party. We stopped at the grocery store on our way to her house to pick up a pumpkin, a ghost cookie cutter, and a mallet. Since neither of us are that good with a knife and we didn’t really feel like poking all of those tiny little holes into the pumpkin from a pre-fab pattern, we thought our plan to just use a cookie cutter was genius!

…..and it was. Once I got that pumpkin gutted, we were done in no time flat! (Which left plenty of time for drinking…..a hobby we much preferred over pumpkin carving!)

….But that was last year. Post-car crash, pre-scram, pre-sobriety.

This year, I am hoping for Shirley Temples and LOTS of pumpkin creativity! This year we have our son with us. I haven’t shared this with you yet, but he is SO talented. He has a sketch book that is really impressive! (I think he should follow that passion and incorporate it into a career, but what do I know…..you can’t tell these kids anything – whew, I sounded like a real live parent there, didn’t I!) He has already been googling ideas for his pumpkin! I can’t wait to see what he comes up with and I can’t wait to share it with you! I know it will be a masterpiece and he is SURE to “win” our unofficial “contest”. I think his “prize” will be a tank of gas in his new car.

My mister and my dad will play golf when we get to Ocala, while Tyler, my mom, and I will find a pumpkin patch to go pick out our perfect, prize winning pumpkins. I haven’t decided if my perfect pumpkin needs to be tall so he can have a long face or if he needs to be perfectly round for a cute little plump face….

My sister in law spreads plastic out all over the back porch and everyone finds a spot and we all start gutting. While pumpkin guts fly, my mother in law is there with a big garbage bag, catching the guts and cleaning up. (She LOVES to clean! And she’s good at it, too! The boys love to tease her if they find a piece of dust in her house…which is rare. Her house is SPOTLESS! She runs her vacuum EVERY SINGLE DAY! Whew, I know where my mister gets that from.) When she sets the bag down, another family member, Alice, rummages through to salvage all of the pumpkin seeds. Her family LOVES to roast the pumpkin seeds! I have to admit, roasted pumpkin seeds are pretty tasty!

My Scrammy visited me in my dreams last night. I have that dream from time to time. It is like the dream normal people have where they are naked in public. In my dream, I have an exposed Scram in public which can be equally as traumatic!