Barbara Ortagus »

I am never sure when I should be getting this going.  You of course don’t want to do it too early, but you certainly don’t want to do a rush job at the last minute either.  I figured 6 days before was as good as any, so we rolled up our sleaves today and commenced in the annual pumpkin carving tradition.

I am incredibly picky when it comes to selecting a pumpkin.  Perhaps it is my OCD shining though, but the pumpkin has to be as "perfectly" shaped as possible.  No tall skinny pumpkins and no short squat ones either.  I like my Christmas trees artificial and full and I like my pumpkins to be pumpkin shaped.  As long as pumpkin shape equals normal.  That isn’t making sense, but hopefully you get my point.

So we went to the pumpkin stand down the street and selected a couple of pumpkins that passed the scrutiny of my overly critical eye.  We picked up one pumpkin for each of the kids, and one for my husband who likes to so some weird pumpkin things with a dremel.  I don’t know, I guess he sees this stuff on the internet, but it never turns out right, but it keeps him busy for a few hours and includes him in this special event.

I have to admit that while I enjoy the carving part, I think the inside of pumpkins are gross and disgusting.  I hate getting that crap on my hands and I think it smells horrible.  But I love my kids so I ploughed on.  They are getting older so I thought maybe they could do most of it, but we still have a little way to go.

For some reason this year, one pumpkin was much easier to cut into than the other.  One had a very hard shell and was tough to get the knife through.  In the end we managed however.

I roasted the seeds again, as I love to snack on those.  I dug into my easy to make dessert recipes and baked a pumpkin pie for dessert.

All in all it was a good day.  I felt I had to compete with the TV for this kids attention sometimes, but I am confident they will remember these times as they get older.