Seth and Carrie (aka my housemates) host a pumpkin carving party every year so, this year, the party was at my house. Carrie made her famous spicy chili and we had cornbread, salad, homemade pumpkin pies, apple cider and homemade eggnog. Just before the party there was a slight mishap with one of the pies – the cat and dog colluded and the cat knocked the pie off the table so they could eat all of the crust (guess they don’t like pumpkin). So after shipping the dog off to grandma’s house, and fetching a pie from the store, we were ready to party.

Carrie cleared the rugs out of the living room and put down plastic table cloths so when we were finished, clean up was really easy. Everyone brought their own pumpkins and Carrie provided the tools. She has amassed quite a collection from her years of pumpkin carving parties.

The kids did so great, they carved their pumpkins all by their selves. And sat for hours working on them. Their creativity cracks me up!

I love the pictures Seth got of my house at night:

And I’m amazed at what kind of photos his camera takes – I took this one:

(To glitter pumpkins, use a foam brush and apply a thin coat of glue, we used modge podge, but elmers would work perfectly. Then sprinkle on a thick coat of fine glitter.)

I had to take a break from carving to do a little knitting… of course.

To see the whole set of photos, click here.

Read Carrie’s version of the story here.

This number one question I get now that I’m divorced is if we are going to start celebrating all the holidays that we used to skip. I know Halloween was a strange one to start with, but we have had so much fun doing all the fall activities that we have missed out on all these years. I’m still not sure how I fit the pagan roots of the holiday in with our spiritual beliefs, but for now, I’m just taking this as a really fun time with friends and a chance to feel so much freedom – a chance to make my own decisions for my life and do whatever I want. And for that I am thankful.