Life: Idiotropic

I'd planned on carving out pumpkins this weekend and thought it would be fun to share that tradition with our friends, so we picked today and invited some people over for some good ol' fashioned pumpkin carvin'.

An American family came over and two of my Spanish friends came over with their husbands and kids. Halloween is just beginning to be celebrated in some parts of Spain, driven by commercialism. In Mallorca, squash are traditionally eaten more than in other parts of Spain and they do have special occasions when they carve different kinds of squash. But none of my Spanish friends had ever carved pumpkins before. We had our long plastic folding tables set up with big plastic bowls for the guts. The adults cut off the tops and the kids all got their hands messy cleaning out the insides. The kids drew faces on the pumpkins with sharpies and the adults cut out the pieces. It was fun. I think everyone had a good time. Kirk cleaned and roasted batches of pumpkin seeds with different seasonings. I'd made hot apple cider and pumpkin cookies. Everyone stood around the table of food and talked for a couple of hours.

Tiara's pumpkin (not yet photographed in completion) was completed in stages. She kept up, but she really wanted to do it all herself, so it came out one way and then she changed it, and then a little later, she cut more out of the mouth and changed it again. It was the first time that I'd let her carve it completely by herself. And she did have fun though it is not evident from the oh-mom-just-leave-me-alone-and-stop-taking-so-many-pictures expression on her face. Arianna drew a traditional face - triangles and a big smile. She did a great job cleaning it out and was all smiles in the process.

Luci and Elise took a bit longer. I ended helping both of them clean out the insides, but they had fun drawing on the outside. Luci drew a great face and Kirk did an excellent job cutting it out exactly as she'd drawn it, so hers was the most unique of the bunch and got a lot of smiles. She was compared to Picasso or Dali. It's definitely Luci - she never accepts the status quo. Elise scribbled all over hers, so Kirk carved a simple face into it. By then all the kids (there were 10 of them) were upstairs running around playing and the adults were all standing around talking. It was one of those pleasant days when I seemed to be able to speak in Spanish fairly well which felt good. I wasn't tripping all over my words today as much as usual.

I shared my recipes with my friends. They didn't know what allspice was (I use it in my mulled cider), so I looked it up in my dictionary. The Spanish word for allspice translates to Jamaican pepper. I wonder if allspice really comes from Jamaica. It certainly doesn't seem like pepper at all to me other than it's shape.