To Puke... or Not to Puke
You really can't have too much of a good thing when it comes to Halloween decorating. It's the one time of the year that you can put as much stuff as you want all over your door, front porch and entire yard and not be considered trashy. In fact, the more stuff you put up, the cooler and more worthy community member you obviously are.
And the only thing better than putting up the decorations themselves is picking out the prized pumpkins to showcase on those front steps.
I didn't quite get my act together to do the whole hayride and picking pumpkins off the vine thing this year, but I did have a much more enthusiastic pumpkin picker than last year, so that was fun.
Make that two...
The pumpkin carving gig has always been a big deal to me. I always pencil on a sketch first and make sure it's perfect, then carve it out with different size & shape utensils (except for that one crazy year where I was feeling brave/ lazy and used a massive butcher knife for the whole thing). It's just one of those things I look forward to all year.
...Until the dream in my head of all my kids sitting patiently around the pumpkin, cheering me on and helping me carefully scoop the pumpkin goo into a bowl... is met with the reality that a) my kids' idea of carefully scooping pumpkin goop into the bowl is flinging it across the room and rubbing it all over their bodies, and b) the sharp carving utensils make excellent instruments for gauging their own eyes out, or maybe even mine.
Anyhoo....
So the question is: when you have a good thing going, do you change it up just for the sake of doing something different?
The puking pumpkin has become a household tradition around here and I just don't think I can bear to see it go.
Especially when Niall does such a creative and entertaining rendition of what a puking pumpkin would look like in human form (imagine a machine gun noise mixed with gagging):
I know that doing the same exact pumpkin face 3 years in a row is boring, but wouldn't it be just as boring not to have a puking pumpkin?
There's painting the pumpkin instead of carving and there are all kinds of detailed scenes instead of faces, but I'm just not sure that anything will quite replace the original McCullough pumpkin.
I'll think about it. Any suggestions are welcome!
In the meantime, I'm counting down the 10 years or so until the boys will be old enough to help me in creating the ultimate neighborhood haunted house. This has been a dream of mine forever and it IS GOING TO HAPPEN. Someday, it will happen. Some day, the trick-or-treaters who come to our door will have to walk through a yard full of screams and run away from a leaf blower-turned-chainsaw in order to get their candy, and one of my most important and rewarding life accomplishments can be checked off. (No, that is not saying anything about the substance of my life accomplishments.) I can't wait.
And the only thing better than putting up the decorations themselves is picking out the prized pumpkins to showcase on those front steps.
I didn't quite get my act together to do the whole hayride and picking pumpkins off the vine thing this year, but I did have a much more enthusiastic pumpkin picker than last year, so that was fun.
Make that two...
The pumpkin carving gig has always been a big deal to me. I always pencil on a sketch first and make sure it's perfect, then carve it out with different size & shape utensils (except for that one crazy year where I was feeling brave/ lazy and used a massive butcher knife for the whole thing). It's just one of those things I look forward to all year.
...Until the dream in my head of all my kids sitting patiently around the pumpkin, cheering me on and helping me carefully scoop the pumpkin goo into a bowl... is met with the reality that a) my kids' idea of carefully scooping pumpkin goop into the bowl is flinging it across the room and rubbing it all over their bodies, and b) the sharp carving utensils make excellent instruments for gauging their own eyes out, or maybe even mine.
Anyhoo....
So the question is: when you have a good thing going, do you change it up just for the sake of doing something different?
The puking pumpkin has become a household tradition around here and I just don't think I can bear to see it go.
I know that doing the same exact pumpkin face 3 years in a row is boring, but wouldn't it be just as boring not to have a puking pumpkin?
There's painting the pumpkin instead of carving and there are all kinds of detailed scenes instead of faces, but I'm just not sure that anything will quite replace the original McCullough pumpkin.
I'll think about it. Any suggestions are welcome!
In the meantime, I'm counting down the 10 years or so until the boys will be old enough to help me in creating the ultimate neighborhood haunted house. This has been a dream of mine forever and it IS GOING TO HAPPEN. Someday, it will happen. Some day, the trick-or-treaters who come to our door will have to walk through a yard full of screams and run away from a leaf blower-turned-chainsaw in order to get their candy, and one of my most important and rewarding life accomplishments can be checked off. (No, that is not saying anything about the substance of my life accomplishments.) I can't wait.
You TOTALLY need to do the puking pumpkin again this year! It's only right and I LOVE IT!
ReplyDeleteAnd, I so wish I was your neighbor in ten years. I LOVED LOVED LOVED houses that went all out for Halloween as a kid and they were really rare even then!