Caution: power tools in use

Last weekend after we celebrated Lilly's birthday, we harvested our pumpkins from the garden pumpkin patch and each got to work carving our Jack-O-Lanterns.
I've carved a pumpkin, I think, every year since sometime in the early 90s. It has been a family tradition. And if we could, we always got at least two and made sure one was elongated so we could carve the ghosty face on one and give it a large round mouth, and the other was the regular squat or round pumpkin, which was the one with a spooky sharp-toothed mean face.

This is the first time I've ever watched our own pumpkins grow in a patch. We all four had our own pumpkin to carve.

We started by opening the top and digging in to get the pulp and seeds out. Chuck likes to roast the seeds, and I had never done that. We separated the seeds for later.

Chuck cut off the tops and we saved the seeds for roasting. 

I came inside to dig around in the gadget drawer in the kitchen to see if I could find something to use for shaving the rind of the pumpkin, and fine detailed carving. When I went back out I saw that Chuck had retrieved his drill and bits. (There really is a difference between men and women.)

Sean quickly got to work. He loved using the drill.

He drilled his pumpkin full of large holes and he was finished. I cautiously asked if he could tell me about his pumpkin, trying not to be critical or say, "What IS it?"
"Oh, it's a spider," he said, "See all the eyes." Well, yes, of course!

Chuck created a goofy, grinning, yet disturbing face on his.

Lilly wanted one that looked something like a tattoo.

I just drew whatever came to me, and it is unlike any I've ever carved.

When it got dark we lit the candles inside them to see what they would look like. Mine and Sean's didn't show up so well in the picture, but they do look cool in person.