Halloween at Our House

So, maybe this post is a little late, but that fits right in to one of the major character flaws that Mark and I share - procrastination. This past Halloween was the third Halloween that we shared together. Halloween is a special holiday for us, and so this year we commemorated the occasion by handing out candy to trick-or-treaters. It was the first time we were able to do that, as in the previous years we both had separate obligations. 

Now, Mark and I are a couple that like to celebrate traditions... and trust me, we have a tradition for basically EVERYTHING. Each year we carve a pumpkin together, celebrating a date back in the early years of October 2009 when Mark surprised me with a pumpkin and a festive fall evening :) However, this year our procrastinating caused us to fulfill this tradition fairly late in the Halloween season... so late that we didn't get to the carving until Halloween night as the little ghosts, goblins, and Mario nintendo characters were ringing our doorbell for candy. 

After Mark went to work that Monday morning, I set out in search for our pumpkin. (Yeah, that's right. Not only had we not carved it yet, we hadn't even purchased it!) I ended up at the Webster Groves Pumpkin Patch, where all of the small pumpkins were conveniently* already purchased by people who were far better prepared for the Halloween season than we were. So I was stuck with purchasing a pumpkin far larger than I would have preferred, in most part because I knew I would be the one who had to carry it all the way to the car since Mark was at work. Though I loved the larger size of the pumpkin, this sucker was heavy! As I plumped our orange giant into the backseat of my car, I smiled a bit remembering our first pumpkin, Harry, in 2009 (Larry was carved in 2010). Harry was a much smaller pumpkin and my silly Mark playfully had buckled Harry into the toddler carseat in my car. There was no need to buckle this one in, he wasn't going anywhere!

When I got to work, I emailed Mark to tell him that our pumpkin was massive. I somehow managed to get home from work that day before Mark did and had our pumpkin anxiously awaiting his arrival on the dining room table. Instead of a "Honey, I'm home!" I heard the front door open and Mark exclaim "You weren't kidding!" No, I wasn't. Seriously, y'all should have felt the weight of this thing before we emptied it's guts and made it smile. (Though, my sister and brother-in-law had us beat with a freaking mega giant pumpkin that took two people to carry, from what I've heard.) 

So, as I made dinner, Mark grabbed a pencil and began drawing on our guy's face. He asked me what I wanted him to look like. I wanted a BIG smile, so big that it was a bit goofy looking. Here is a picture of Herby, our country bumpkin pumpkin of 2011, sporting a Cardinals baseball hat in honor of their world series championship:

After we ate dinner, Mark began the cutting. This part of the process always makes me nervous, and I'm sure I aggravate the heck out of my handsome man as I repeatedly say "Point the knife away from you!" As soon as the scull was cracked, I started digging in and removing the seedy guts of Herby. One thing I didn't think about... huge pumpkins equal huge amounts of guts. Eww. So, with pumpkin guts and goo up to my elbows, Mark passed out the candy to the trick-or-treaters. Once Herby was empty, Mark picked out the seed we would keep. Like I said, we have our traditions, and we always keep one seed from each pumpkin. Then, it was time to give our giant orange guy a face :) 

After the trick-or-treating appeared to be over, Mark turned off all the lights (a big EEEEEK to me, since I am afraid of the dark!) and the two of us snuggled up on the sofa listening to ghost stories on our record player and drinking hot chocolate. 

So maybe procrastination got the best of this year's Halloween tradition, but we loved every second of it just the same. Halloween at Our House turned out pretty perfect, even if it was last minute.

*sarcasm implied