"those pumpkins make me angry!"

Mayhem says as I place the recently carved things on the storage bench outside. "why do the pumpkins make you angry?" I ask. "Because they are not scawy."

Apparently non-scary pumpkins can be a source of annoyance to a 3 year old. Who knew?

However, when it got dark out & I put lighted candles in them he was happy. They were now jack o lanterns according to him and were now scary enough for him to be happy. He says they are supposed to scare off the other pumpkin ghosts. It is interesting to see what bits of information are actually retained in a child's mind from what you have told them.

We got the pumpkins while at Fox Chase Farm on an outing with the boys school. It is a Christian school & I was once again amused to find my family choices being misunderstood. We don't do Easter baskets or the Easter bunny at our house & we don't do egg coloring or egg hunts (though we color them at Ostara). This bit of information makes people think we must be strict Christians & those who do the egg/basket/bunny thing tend to get a little defensive & justify/explain about how they only do it because it's tradition in the family & fun but of course the focus is on Jesus' resurrection. So Thursday I was treated to a casual semi-lecture on the misunderstandings of the symbols of witchcraft versus the symbols of Madison Ave by the school's headmaster, because Havoc, when asked "so, what sort of jack o lantern are you going to carve on that?" by the headmaster, replied "Pumpkins are only for pies."

My kids love the idea of making pie from a pumpkin(they are not too keen on the actual pie itself) and they have never had a jack o lantern before, despite getting pumpkins every year. This is not because I am a strict Christian or am having some sort of witchy reaction over commericalization of the holiday. It's because they have lazy & cheap parents. I'm the lazy one, DH is cheap. I'm not inclined to carve a pumpkin (its long & messy work & i am not very good at it) & DH is not inclined to pay for something that is just going to rot on the front porch (and pumpkins have remained rotting on our porch until Xmas in the past). Plus we usually end up with an assortment of weird lopsided pumpkins that don't lend themselves to faces (not with our level of artistic talent) We'll make pie out of a pumpkin because you get an edible result & you can whack into slices easily with no artistry needed

All this adds up to the headmaster taking Havoc's response to mean I am depriving my children of carved pumpkins because I believe even the commercial symbols of witchcraft are so evil they must be avoided. I found that damned amusing I must say. :)

We did find a way to make both pies & jack o lanterns this year. DH cut a hole in the top & very carefully scooped the flesh out of the sides, leaving enough to support the carved pumpkin. Between 2 medium sized pumpkins we got enough cooked, drained pumpkin meat to make one pie and we have 2 glowing jack o lanterns on the porch (where they will no doubt remain until well after Thanksgiving). we also have a buttload of pumpkin seeds. Half are a sweet spicy mix that could have been kicked up a couple notches and the other half are a garlic & salt mix that spent a little too long in the oven.