First you take a pumpkin...

First you take a pumpkin, big and round and fat.
Then you take the top off, that makes the hat.
Then you make some holes for the mouth, the nose, eyes,
Making for the children a Halloween surprise!

I actually sung that Joy School song for my seminary class on Halloween. I brought an uncarved pumpkin and talked about how fun it can be to carve pumpkins. But, you know me, everything has to have a purpose. The purpose of bringing a pumpkin as an object lesson was to point out how much we are like pumpkins. ("really", I hear you say.) We need to open up, clean out all the crud inside us, so we can light up and shine. And what we put on the outside, a scary face, a sad face, or a happy face, is up to us.

My kids have lost that lovin' feeling towards carving pumpkins for Halloween. Actually, Josh did have a great idea... he wanted to carve it like Strongbad from Homestarrunner.com. I was like, uh, no. But after he showed me the stencil he got off the internet, I agreed it was an awesome jack-o-lantern. Here's how it turned out: