Shannon's Third Halloween

Shannon's pumpkin was smaller than her head. With a pumpkin that small you aren't sure you want to carve it, but that's what she really wanted to do. Make a jack-o-lantern. So I started to hack at the top. It was like cutting kiln-dried clay with a wobbly steak knife.

This was the toughest pumpkin shell I'd ever seen. If it was scraped out nicely, it would make a great container. Tougher than tupper-ware. So I sawed and hammered and wrenched and eventually, when I got all around my hexagon, we lifted off the cap, and WOW! This thing was overflowing with seeds to bake. It was great. There's a picture book called How Many Seeds? It talks about how size is not the factor in determining seed count in a pumpkin. It's how many ridges it has. This pumpkin is like a potato chip. Rippled.

So, Shannon hollowed it out, I scraped the bottom, and Dad carved the face. Luckily Shannon didn't want teeth. She got a smooth smile and smooth eyes and it took the entire time I cooked dinner. (I braised steak, potatoes, and carrots together in butter with tons of garlic, salt, onion powder, and black pepper. It's all about the butter.)

Shannon had a great Halloween week. She dressed as a ballerina for the library's trick-or-treak storytime. (The story lady has a trunk full of costumes for all the kids in the room. Shannon got to hold up a paper plate and craft stick mask of a monster and yell "Trick or Treat!" in the play they put on.) Friday, she went to a Joy School outing at Eden Farms where she got to go on the hayride, navigate a small hay maze, and pick a pumpkin from the field. She was thrilled to see her friends again. She got even more excited last night at the ward's Trunk-or-Treat. She said "the soup was too spicy," at the chili and cornbread event. (I made Cream of Wheat bread instead. It's yummy.) Then they went out in the unlit parking lot to feel their way from car to car. Actually I think enough people brought flashlights or turned on their cars or lit candles so that the kids weren't frightened. Shannon told me all about it this morning because I unfortunately was at work.

Today my goal was a good Sabbath and because no one came trick-or-treating down our street (not enough street lights), we got away with not taking Shannon out.

Still, she had a bit of a candy meltdown. She cried at bedtime because she wanted to go door-to-door, then she started crying because she didn't want to wait two months for Christmas. Crazy, huh? I couldn't believe how immediate her switch was. It was just like when we were trying to get her to eat two slices of potato at dinner and she bawled about it. She just sobbed and sobbed that she doesn't like potatoes. Until . . . I said, "Did you know French Fries are made of potatoes? What if we cut your potatoes like French Fries and gave you some catsup?" She cut off the tears right away and said, "Okay!" Then, she ate all the potatoes we had left in the pan and licked her fingers.

It's not easy being three. But it sure is exciting.