Carving Pumpkins

We were determined to continue our annual Halloween Pumpkin Carving tradition. We had expected to have plenty of time to get ready for it after the birth. As it turned out, Magda was born only three weeks ago, so some of the more ambitious plans (and the mailing out of an early invitation) didn't quite happen.

The party turned out well. We're getting seasoned pros at this and Magda was cooperating by letting Jennifer have enough time to make the house ready. I spent Friday night cooking the traditional potato mushroom soup (Custco has got dirt cheap dried Shiitake mushrooms, BTW) and then most of Saturday making Grissini (bread sticks) and my Ghost bread rolls using the flour I brought back from Switzerland. And we wisely made cookies last week and bought the veggies pre-cut.

With the late annoucements and holding the party on Halloween Eve (yeah, I know that's All Hallows' Eve Eve) we had a smaller turnout, but still lots of fun. It's remarkable how the kids change from year to year and it's fun watching them play more with each other as they grow older. I was too busy to take enough pictures of everyone earlier in the evening -- if anyone has got good photos, please send them to me.

I did manage to carve my pumpkin and to photograph all of them. I'm still working on getting the right lighting for the shots (most are too dark). In this photo, the exposure was 8 seconds and I shone my flashlight on my pumpkin for a second or so. Next year I'll try more long exposures and "paint" the pumpkins with a (more diffused) flashlight. BTW, this double exposure (courtesy of Henry bumping my tripod) is pretty neat, too. It makes my pumpkin have six eyes.