I love that every time I carve a pumpkin for Halloween I feel like a kid again. I've been dealing with some migraines that have made me pretty grumpy for a couple of weeks, and I almost said bah humbug to the whole Halloween thing -- but then tonight, I realized that I'm just not a bah humbug type person, I'm a celebrate when given the chance kind of person -- so I did. He's a simple guy, but that Jack sure makes me smile with his big glowing smile:) And it brings me such joy to think of all of the awesome Halloweens I had as a kid -- Mom and Dad were so great about getting into the spirit and making sure we always carved pumpkins (we each got our own!) as a family. There was a lot of laughter around the kitchen table covered in newspaper and pumpkin guts as we drew silly faces on our pumpkins and Dad carved them for us (until we grew old enough to handle the knife ourselves, which was a great moment of pride.) I even remember one year when we made a whole body to go with the pumpkin head, stuffing Dad's old clothes with newspaper. Trick or treating was always fun, and I delighted in dressing up -- but for me, the best times were with all of us covered in sticky orange strings of goop letting our creativity shine as brightly as the candles we placed in our finished works of gourd art.
