Annual Pumpkin Carving

Muck Removal

Hola!

Couldn't get through October without having our traditional Pumpkin Carving Family Home Evening.

(Again: thanks to Kara, we decorate for, and celebrate holidays to the max!  The fall school and sports schedules overwhelm me so much, I would - sadly - probably take a "pass" on some of this.  But energetic Kara will have none of that!)

We usually wait until pretty close to Halloween Day to carve the pumpkins.  Maybe we learned that in southern California, where it's always warm and your pumpkin gets old and moldy after just a few days.  But even here in the Arctic North, we have a few warm days in October, so we are still better off waiting.

Make sure all the gunk is cleaned out...

Eeewww...

searching for the perfect pumpkin face

Get the music playing on Pandora.com...

Sometimes we like intense music from adventure movie soundtracks.  No words, just fast orchestra music that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

(Think John Williams with Star Wars, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  Also Hans Zimmer, with Pirates of the Caribbean, Mission Impossible, The Dark Knight Rises, and Inception. The music is phenomenal.  They belong to an amazing, elite club of genius composers.)

Puking Pumpkin

So anyway, David (our high school senior) found this great group who plays very intense music--their music could be part of soundtracks for very intense movies! We really like the music when he plays it for us on youtube, and we ask him the natural question, since we like it so much: "What group is this?"

"Two Steps from Hell."  (Oh.  Bummer.  Now I can't recommend it to anybody without swearing.  That's a little awkward.)

Teresa requested the Open-Mouth, Puking Pumpkin.  Sometimes it's a little ridiculous, what you can find on the Internet.

Got to get a picture of this on my phone

Here are the final products, with candles to show them off on the doorstep!

Thanks to all the Whitesell participants. :)