7. Carve a Pumpkin

Complete: 10/28/2012

Pumpkin Patch

If you know me, you'd be familiar with my childhood and how it lacked many of the typical American traditions that pretty much all youth born here have experienced. I lost out on a lot of things that other kids had, like decorating a Christmas tree (yeah, still haven't done that in my 24 years of existence thus far), hiding a tooth for the tooth fairy, watching Disney classics (still haven't had the chance to watch The Little Mermaid), or having bedtime stories read to me to lull me to sleep. There was something about moving to warmer weather here in Hawaii that transformed my parents; they underwent a major lifestyle change from one filled with lavish and conspicuous consumption that entailed a lot of socializing and parties, to one of parsimony and pragmatism, mostly revolving around work (and volunteering upon retiring from their lunch wagon business).

Pumpkin's "before" picture

When it came to holidays, my parents didn't really feel the need to be festive and partake in such celebration. When I think about it, I guess it turned out for the better since I feel like I wasn't spoiled because of that. For example, to my parents, birthdays were meant for children to show gratitude to their parent for all the sacrifices they made that helped their child reach another year, which is very much the opposite of the sentiment here where the child is the center of the celebration for reaching another year. The basic conclusion I'm intending  to get is that I missed out on many American traditions as a child, some of which became items on my bucket list so that I could say I experienced them in my life. 

 

Scooping out the guts

I wasn't initially planning on completing this pumpkin thing this year, but a good friend who knew about my bucket list had kindly purchased a carving kit for me and given it to me a few weeks ago (thank you!). There's no better motivation to get something done than to have the encouragement of others. Since it felt like someone was investing in my pumpkin experience, how could I not do it?

 

Outline to be cut away

So the next step in my quest to carve a pumpkin led me to my first trip to a pumpkin patch. It was quite nice to roam around a field full of orange pumpkins of all shapes and sizes. The anal person that I am, of course, had to look at every single pumpkin before being satisfied with my selection. After settling on one, I took it home.

 

 

Sister beginning the carving, Dad holding the pumpkin and posing 

Now, if I was going to make this a bucket list item, I couldn't pick just any 'ole design. After searching through sites of templates, I finally settled on an owl (hoo-hoo!) By the way, people are pretty creative and talented with their pumpkin carvings as I was researching various ideas. Google it and you'll see what I mean. My favorites are the hamburger (and TMNT from watermelon).
 

 Look of determination as I carve a narrow section

Setting up for pumpkin carving is quite more work than I anticipated. First, I cut the top off at an angle so it could serve as a "lid" for the pumpkin. Pumpkins pack quite some stringy threads inside. Then my sister and I drew the owl free-hand (she did a good job with the face, I did a not-so-good job with the wings, body, and feet). Then came the carving. I don't know about the rest of pumpkin carvers, but it was some pretty serious business. It's not that easy to cut through the thick pumpkin skin, and with precision nonetheless (hence, the jagged edges). I think our design almost collapsed on the left side, but luckily it held.

 
The Pumpkin's "after" picture

 After finishing the final product, we put a candle inside and lit it. Not too shabby.