Just a quick post with the results of our pumpkin carving. Thanks everyone for voting, I can’t believe that Eric and I won! I voted for the father and son man eating pumpkins 🙂 But I guess if you’re a regular here, you like my style, so it makes sense that you’re drawn to my fire breathing dragon (that looks a bit like an angry cow!). Below is the line up of who carved what plus a short and sweet 30 second video of the fun we had handing out hot chocolate and cider.
For most of our pumpkin, I drew the design I wanted and Eric cut it out…
…except for the nostrils which were a bit tricky.
From this angle it looks positively happy!
Heather and John had a unique carving technique that went well with their theme of man eating pumpkins!
Fred did a really great job carving his first pumpkin, he was so meticulous! I didn’t show this in the original post because it would have been a giveaway…
…but Fred even carved the Chinese characters for gourd into his pumpkin. So cool!
Eric’s dad carved the mummy pumpkin. Notice the trend in cool orange hats for pumpkin carving? I think we should all wear them next year!
And my picture of Eric’s mom accidentally got deleted (Sorry Mom!) but she was responsible for the elegant welcome pumpkin and the Larry the Cucumber pumpkin which was a pumpkin she grew herself!
As for Halloween, Eric and I decided not to dress as zombies because we didn’t want to scare anyone. It was a wise decision on Eric’s part as our neighbor two doors down was jumping out at kids with a chainsaw! We became quite the safe haven for kids to catch their breath after they ran away screaming.
All our worries about people not accepting cocoa or cider because they aren’t “wrapped” were unnecessary. Everyone was thrilled for a hot drink and a chance to hang out and talk. We became quite the social gathering spot and had people running up to our driveway shouting “We’ve been looking all over for you guys!”
We had 130 kids plus parents (who were equally excited for hot drinks!). Everyone told us they’d be back next year and tell all their friends so we may be even busier next year! It was a great way to build a sense of community and have a chance for conversation with neighbors we’d never met.
Next year we’ll probably ask our neighborhood to put out garbage cans for Halloween. Our street was littered with cups the next day from people who took their drinks with them. Eric took Phurba on a walk and picked up all the trash on our street, which made one of our elderly neighbors cry saying he restored her faith in humanity.
All in all, it was a great experience and will definitely be a tradition for us!
That was such a sweet video! So glad that turned out well 🙂
Me too! Such a fun time.