Halloween Eve

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. Besides the fact that it largely centers around receiving and consuming vast quantities of candy (have I mentioned my sweet tooth?) we always had fun traditions when I was a kid.

Since I grew up in Alaska, winter was usually underway by the end of October and therefore costumes had to be planned with freezing temperatures in mind (well, until we were stupid teenagers anyway). My mom made us several costumes utilizing yards and yards of flannel - the costumes doubled as winter pajamas after the holiday had passed. There were always parties at school, back when schools weren't so darn grinchy about organized holidays. Despite not loving Halloween my mom usually made us a 'spooky' dinner before going out trick-or-treating.

And then there was carving the pumpkin. My dad always did that with us. Scooping out the slimy guts, washing and roasting the seeds on the years we could be bothered, planning out the features and watching my dad wield the knife. And then when it was finished, the jack-o-lantern usually sat, candle flickering inside, in the dark hallway outside our bedrooms.

These were just some of the traditions that made the time of year feel special, and left me with very fond memories and a desire to re-create some of that feeling for my own kids. I'll confess though, it's been hard to be patient while they actually get old enough to participate in making our traditions and appreciate them. I think this is the first year they will really appreciate trick-or-treating, helping me prepare Thanksgiving dinner and all the fun holiday-related activities after that.

Anyway, long-winded way of saying I carved our pumpkins with the kids this evening. Chris lost interest when he discovered the power tool he'd purchased last year after our painstaking hours with those stupid little prickers and saws wasn't going to work. So I rolled up my sleeves and dug in. Brighton specifically requested that "one pumpkin be happy, one pumpkin be sad." So that's what we did. One happy pumpkin, one sad pumpkin, two happy kids and one happy mama.

I found Pacey walking around with this: one trick-or-treat
bucket containing a cell phone and an iPod. I think he
might be disappointed tomorrow night. 

Happy pumpkins

Sad pumpkins

We've simplified since last year...