Halloween Has Come and Gone

I really missed the boat on Halloween this year. Next year, I will do better! At the last minute I was able to get my act together, get candy for trick-or-treaters and to carve a little pumpkin for our front porch. I asked my girlfriends last week what I should buy for Halloween candy and one person said the smartest thing "Buy candy that you don't want to eat." So I went seeking hard candy since we are mostly a chocolate-loving household. I should have known that hours before trick or treating was to begin the dollar store and grocery store would be cleaned out of Halloween candy. In fact, they had already turned over the seasonal aisles to accommodate Christmas items! There was a sad little corner on the end of a barren shelf where the last, unloved, bags of candy were being housed at massively discounted prices. My neighbor had told me to expect to go through more than 5 bags of candy so I bought about 300 pieces of assorted taffy and hard candy items. Wouldn't ya know it, we only got FOUR trick or treaters! FOUR! Imagine my depression when I finally had to give up the good fight and go blow out the jack-o-lantern at 9 O'Clock. It led me to over analyze and come up with the following list.

                       Possible Reasons We Had No Visitors on Halloween

                                     1. The porch light was out. Whoops. 

                                     2. We live on the wrong side of the tracks. Our street has some shady characters

                                         and is in a neighborhood not exactly renowned for its wealth.

                                     3. Neighbors can't compete. We were one of the only houses on the street

                                         decorated and open for business. 

                                     4. The many small children that run around our street during waking hours probably

                                         went trick-or-treating before we both were even home from work.

                                     5. Our enormous guard dog is probably feared far and wide.

Even though I didn't feel that I got to fully take part in Halloween 2013, I still got to carve a pumpkin and here it comes. This poor little guy was one of five pumpkins left in the bin outside the grocery store. He was homeless so I gave him a hug and plunked him down in my cart. Naturally I would prefer to buy a pumpkin at an actual farm or pumpkin patch, my bad. 

For some reason I have it in my head that Dad always went looking for a pumpkin that was flat on one side, assuming this because it made it easier to carve a face. Well, I still carved on the rounded side but I did get a pumpkin that had a flat side (not shown) so that it could lay down safely in my car. 

 
Obviously I used a large spoon to carve out the inside, but pulling out the guts is a hands only type of job. Newspaper covering the table is for this messy step in the event that any guts go astray.

 

 I used a green marker to sketch out my design since it stands out against the orange flesh. I've used red before and it just becomes a pain to see. This is again where a flat side comes in handy because I could lay down the pumpkin while I carved. At this point I had moved to the living room floor so I could watch TV.

 
And voila! Vampire Jack! Huge candle on the inside so I didn't have to worry about putting in a new one and I propped him up on the chair on our front porch so he was closer to eye level for little kids.

I'm going to make him a centerpiece on the dining room table so I can enjoy him before he droops away. Here's to a better turnout next year!