Halloween Traditions!

One of my most favorite holiday traditions with my family is carving pumpkins. My family is probably laughing right now, because although I love the tradition, I hate sticking my hand inside the pumpkin and pulling at the guts. Gross! Grossest thing ever!!! But I do like carving them, although I am not artistic in any way, shape, or form. I always have the most wonderful ideas in my head, but cannot ever get them to translate onto the pumpkin. This year Dalan got to join us for some carving for the first time ever, because we decided to start the activities in the early evening. Hooray!

As usual Cole carved the best free style pumpkin. He has also been the most artistic of the Carlson children, and every year makes some pretty cool designs in his pumpkins. McKay used a pattern, but made a very cool creepy guy peering out of some blinds. Patti also used a pattern and made a scary skeleton. Red and Dalan stuck with the traditional jack o' latern faces. I tried to make a pinwheel/flowery thing, but it ended up looking like the warning side for nuclear waste. So, that worked. I usually win the prize for worst pumpkin of the year. Seriously, mine are that bad. However, this year, Ali tried an experimental design that failed and just looked like a pacman sort of hole in the pumpkin. So, I am not saying whose pumpkin was the worst pumpkin, I am just saying I think mine was better than some other people's. Love you, Ali!

Everyone is hard at work.

Dalan getting the guts out of my pumpkin for me.

Glamour shot of Miss Ali.

Cole is very serious about his pumpkin carving.

Ali, McKay, and their pumpkins.

Best in Show...Cole's U of U pumpkin eating BYU.
I should have gotten a photo of it all lit up.

Dalan had left to go to work, but here is the rest of us "kids" with the pumpkins.
We were running low on camera batteries, so we only got one photo, and we forgot to turn out the lights.