Punkin Light

We don't celebrate Halloween.  Jonah knows about it, and he knows why we don't do it.  However, he was really intrigued by the idea of carving a face in a pumpkin, and we figured that would be a fun fall-time activity.

A few weeks ago, during the almost-endless-baby-wait, we went with my Mom to a farm where they were having fun weekend activities like a corn maze and hay rides.  Jonah picked out a pumpkin to bring home ("Find the best one!" we said.  "Here, this one will do!" he said about the first pumpkin he saw.) and has since been begging, pleading, and pestering daily about carving it.

So the other day, I thought we had better get to it.  And by "we", I mean, "someone else."  I wasn't sure how my sister, Alyssa, would feel about it, so I tried to be cryptic in asking just in case she didn't want to.  That way, Jonah wouldn't be disappointed.  Because, you see, he wouldn't even know what I asked.  I immediately posted the following exchange on Facebook:

Me, to Alyssa, trying to be cryptic because Jonah was sitting next to her: "Do you feel at all competent or, um, inclined to, uh, cut features into the surface of a, um, large gourd?"
Alyssa, laughing: "Yeah, I could do that."
Jonah: "WHAT? We're gonna carve my pumpkin?!??! Yay!"

Yeah, so that worked well.  But it was fine, because she was happy to take on the project.

Jonah was actually no so thrilled once the project was underway, because scooping out the seeds is just not very exciting.

He got some help, but she mainly made him do it himself.

He drew a face on paper to show what he wanted, and she drew it on the pumpkin with a marker and they carved away.

I guess she did most of the "sharp knife" business, as is fitting.  She's a good auntie.

Jonah was very pleased with his pumpkin-face.  (Which, at first, he said "is Martin Luther" in honor of Reformation Day.)  I gave him a candle for it and we've been lighting it by the woodstove in the evenings until bedtime.  He likes it a lot, and I'm not sure he's prepared for the inevitable decay.  We'll see how he handles that...