Carving Day 2008

I was honored to be included for the first time in a Smith Family tradition this year.  Pumpkin Carving Day.  This is a very special day every year especially for my sister-in-law, Kari.  She says its second only to Thanksgiving as far as her favorite days of the year.  I personally think its a fabulous idea to make up your own family holiday!  You can make a big deal about it and celebrate it every year, yet it doesn’t conflict with other family obligations.  So the Saturday before Halloween will henceforth be known as Carving Day.

We had so much fun.  Kari and her mom made the cutest lunch of mac-n-cheese and hot dog mummies.  They also whipped up a fabulous and gooey pumpkin cake.  After lunch was the main event – pumpkin carving.  Now in my family, the jack-o-lantern was kind of utilitarian, a chore.  We’d get 1 pumpkin and carve a simple jack-o-lantern face into it.  That is certainly not the case on Carving Day.  Everyone gets there own pumpkin, and the designs range from simple-ish to ultra-frustrating-complicated.  Greg and I brought one pumpkin for the both of us, and we can all guess who took charge of carving it.  I picked out a Halloween Kitty design, and Greg went to town “shaving” the design into our pumpkin.  I was allowed to do the part around the cat’s tail.  It turned out awesome, by far the best jack-o-lantern I’ve ever had to display!  I carved a spider/spider web pumpkin for my niece.  It was quite frustrating but I’m glad I put the effort into it because it turned out very well.  I just hope a 22-month old can appreciate the work I put in!  The rest of the day was awesome.  Good food, lots of sugar and just generally lots of fun with family.  Here are some photos from the day.

Ooey Gooey Pumpkin Cake

Lurking Children

Carving Day fun!

Morgan and Mommy

The Star Wars Pumpkin

The Perfectionist

Me, Morgan and Spidey-Pumpkin

The Quiet Game

Greg and Mike

8 Beautiful Jack-O-Lanterns

Strapped in Jack-O-Lantern

So I suggest everyone should make up their own holiday!  Just make it on a weekend because your boss probably won’t be convinced to give you a day off for it.