Andrew’s Jack-o-lantern

I am not a big Halloween fan. I make it no secret. I do not hide the fact that I just do not enjoy the holiday. I do not encourage it with my children. I do not discourage it, but I do not encourage it. If I can hide for the holiday, I will. I just simply do not enjoy it. 

As such my children have never had the fun of carving jack-o-lanterns at home. I just do not do it. I have thought about it. That is as far as it has ever gotten. 

Another little secret about me is that I do not enjoy children and messes combined and having to clean them up so I do not go out of my way to combine the two, hence a jack-o-lantern project would just push me over the top. Pumpkins and their insides are just messy. That mess has to be cleaned up. I do not want anything to do with that grossness. I do not want to clean up the mess that would accompany a child that thinks that it is gross and flicks it everywhere. I want nothing to do with it. 

So when I think of anyone that wants to do this with my children, I think they are absolute saints and I am more than happy to let them share that experience with my children. I do not feel robbed at all. I think it is a brilliant plan actually. I do not have to clean up a monster sized mess and become the not so nice mommy. You get to enjoy my wonderful children. I have no mess to clean up? It is a win-win-win. Why should I feel bad about this? I don’t. 

Anyway, this week during mutual (aka Young Womens/Young Mens) evidently they had a combined activity and the Priests and Laurels were doing pumpkin carving. Perfect! I do not have to do it once again! 

I come home to this sitting on my kitchen counter. This was Andrew’s creation. Actually I came home to it without the bow-tie on. I found the bow-tie on the floor in the laundry room. It had the bow-tie drawn on the pumpkin. I assumed the bow-tie belonged on the pumpkin when I found it. I gather that Andrew presumed that his bow-tie was lost in transport. 

I have to say that this is a very non-traditional jack-o-lantern. I am pleased with Andrew’s choice. Here you can see the bow-tie that is drawn on. It is a very happy pumpkin.

Now I could not resist but light up this happy face. It had an actual strike with a match tea-light candle in it. I am not a fan of those. I found a couple of battery light up LED tea-lights and we put those in there. He looked really cute. 

I have to admit that I really have to smile when I look at this little guy. He is a very happy jack-o-lantern. He brings a lot of joy to my front door step. I will confess to being happy that I did not have to help with him or clean up the mess, but that big grinning mouth and bow-tie just closes the deal and makes me smile every time I see it.