Obligatory Pumpkin Post

The Cannonball

Well, we all knew this was coming.  Can't not have an obligatory pumpkin-carving post, am I right?

In typical Hough fashion, we put this off until the absolute last moment, because this is one of those family activities that is half-fun, half- giant, pain in the ass.  The gutting of the pumpkins?  Not fun.  The clean up?  Also not fun.  Carving your own pumpkin?  Kinda fun.  It's honestly a shitload of work for a mere few pictures every year, but I suppose it's one of those things that we, as parents, have to do in order to not be total deadbeats.

Kinda like Easter.  God, I f***ing hate Easter.

Anyway, I'm not gonna caption these like crazy - they're pretty self-explanatory, it's kids carving pumpkins - but here you go, folks.  Your annual dose of Hough pumpkin-carving.

Enjoy. . . 

(She comes by it naturally.)

Old man Watson.

Abby spent like a half an hour cutting the top off her pumpkin.  No joke.

She hates this part of the process more than any other kid I've ever seen.  I feel like we get this picture every year.

Yes, she went and put on medical gloves for this.

I kinda made mine up as I went this year.  The results were meh.

Samson lurked under the table, next to the trash can, for over an hour.  He's the hobo-est dog I've ever met.

Abby's singing along to Nirvana.  I was honestly impressed she knew the lyrics so well.

Kris spent the better part of this process on her phone, either texting back and forth with the other moms in our friend group or else researching her pumpkin design (unlike me, who just starts hacking away at it.) 

I contemplated putting some weird nostrils on it, but then said 'screw it.'

Alayna's ridiculous short attention span drew her to the living room after she gutted out her pumpkin, where she started playing tug of war with Samson (who absolutely loves the game, unlike his older brother.)

Alayna wanted me to draw the design of her pumpkin for her, which she dictated to me in detail.  Why she can't do this herself, as a 7th grader, I don't know. . .

Samson will do this for hours if you let him.  It gets old real fast.

Abby asked to take some selfies with Kris' phone.  She clearly gets it from her mom.

Every damn year we sort the seeds out from the pumpkin guts, with the intention of baking and salting them as a seasonal snack.  And every damn year, after going through this tedious process, we say 'f*** it' and just throw it all in the trash.  Every.  Damn.  Year.

Still patiently awaiting table scraps.

This year's finished products.  Left to Right:  Kris', mine, Abby's, and Alayna's.

See ya in 2021 for some more obligatory pumpkin carving (provided society survives 2020 without total collapse. . .) 

- Brian